ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Thursday told the Supreme Court (SC) that general elections in the country would be held on February 11.
ECP lawyer revealed this during the hearing of petitions calling for elections within 90 days. The top court, however, directed the ECP high ups to have a meeting with the president today to fix a ‘final’ date for the polls and informed the court tomorrow
Sajeel Swati said the process of drawing constituencies would be completed by January 29. He made this revelation as the top court resumed hearing a set of petitions calling for holding elections within 90 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies.
As the hearing resumed today, PPP lawyer Farooq H. Naek appeared in the court and requested to become a respondent in the case. He was allowed from the judges after PTI’s Barrister Ali Zafar said he had no objections to the request.
Barrister Ali Zafar contended that polls should be held within 90 days. However, CJP Isa said, “Your request for elections within 90 days has now become ineffective.
The PTI lawyer insisted that his argument was connected with a fundamental right, to which CJP Isa asked if the former just wanted elections now. Zafar replied in the affirmative. No other parties opposed the demand.
Continuing his arguments, Zafar said Articles 58 (Dissolution of the National Assembly) and 224 (Time of election and by-election) could be read. “Without elections, neither can the Parliament run nor can laws be formed,” he contended.
He said there was a difference between giving a schedule for elections and announcing the poll date, adding that procedure for giving the election date is mentioned in the Constitution. He further said that the law ministry believes that the president cannot give a date for polls. He highlighted that as per the 90-day deadline, elections should be held on November 7.
He said President Dr Arif Alvi had written a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja on September 13 wherein he proposed that elections be held by November 6. However, he added, the Ministry of Law and Justice had later informed Alvi that the powers to announce the poll date rested with the ECP, not the president.
At one point, Justice Khan said that Ali Zafar’s argument actually was that the president had deviated from the Constitution. “Prima facie the president, the government and the ECP are all responsible,” Justice Minallah said. “The question now is what will be the result of this,” he noted and added that elections must be held on time.
