By Special Correspondent
LAHORE: Justice Jawad Hassan of the Lahore High Court Monday observed that elections must be held within 90 days of the dissolution of an assembly.
Vowing to “struggle for democracy”, Justice Jawad Hassan agreed on the time frame prescribed for holding the elections but posed a question: “the question is who is announcing them”. He also told the PTI to include the Election Commission of Pakistan as a party to the case.
The court gave these directions while hearing a petition filed by the PTI, seeking direction from the court to concerned authorities regarding the announcement of date of election for the Punjab Assembly.
PTI’s counsel Barrister Ali Zafar, during the proceedings, requested the court to direct Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman to announce the election date. He argued that the Election Commission of Pakistan had written to the governor, however he was yet to respond to the electoral watchdog. “On this issue, the Election Commission of Pakistan also stands with us,” he added.
LHC irked
Calling the governor’s lawyer to the rostrum, the court inquired abot his stance over the delay. The lawyer requested the court time to prepare his case. Irked by the counsel’s response, the judge remarked that “an important legal issue has been raised in the PTI’s application” and also issued notices to Governor Punjab and the Election Commission of Pakistan seeking their responses.
It may be noted that earlier in January, the Election Commission of Pakistan had sent letters to the governors of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces with proposed dates for elections of the provincial assemblies.
The electoral watchdog proposed April 9 to 13 for the elections of the Punjab Assembly and April 15 to 17 for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and asked the respective governors to select a date within the given timeline.
