The Supreme Court on Thursday resumed hearing a set of petitions calling for holding elections within 90 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan and Justice Athar Minallah took up the pleas moved by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), the PTI, Munir Ahmad and Ibad-ur-Rehman.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had earlier ruled out polls this year citing the need for fresh delimitation of constituencies.
Since the National Assembly was dissolved three days before the end of its constitutional term, Article 224 of the Constitution mandates that elections be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the assembly by November 7.
But at the same time, Section 17(2) of the Elections Act states that “the commission shall delimit constituencies after every census is officially published.”
Last month, the commission announced that elections would be held in January 2024 but stopped short of announcing a date.
At the previous hearing, the court had issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the federal government for their input on polls within 90 days.
The CJP had observed there were no two opinions that “all of us want elections, but a wrong impression is being created that we are not interested”.
The petitions
SCBA chief Abid Zuberi, through his petition, had pleaded with the apex court to suspend the operation of a decision taken by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) on Aug 5 since the body did not meet the legal requirement of proper composition when it met that day.
He said the ECP’s primary responsibility was to hold elections within 90 days from the date of dissolution of the assemblies — a mandatory period which cannot be extended on any ground, including delimitation of constituencies.
Meanwhile, the PTI’s application sought direction from President Dr Arif Alvi to announce a date for holding elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly.
It also requested the apex court to order the ECP to issue a schedule accordingly, besides the governors of all four provinces be directed to announce the date of elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the respective assemblies, or in accordance with the SC judgement in the Punjab Assembly election case.
from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/FpYurlb
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