Pakistan election commission said the nation could go to polls in January 2024 but Pak apex court could direct it to hold elections earlier. (Image: Reuters File)
ECP says polls could be held in last week of January but Pakistan’s apex court could point to constitutional requirements and tell ECP to hold polls in Nov.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday said that it plans to complete the delimitation of constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies by November 30.
Pakistan-based daily the Dawn said that the decision allows the ECP to hold the general elections in the last week of January 2024 with January 28 as a possible date or February 4, in case there are any other practical difficulties.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja decided to reduce the time needed to complete the delimitation exercise.
However, if the Pakistan Supreme Court intervenes and directs it to drop the delimitation exercise and conduct general polls in 90 days to meet the constitutional requirement, the elections will then be held earlier
“We will comply with (the SC order),” a senior official told the Dawn.
The ECP, according to legal experts in Pakistan who spoke to the newspaper, may have to work with the apex court rather than take decisions on its own. They pointed to the Supreme Court’s rejection of the ECP petition seeking to review a verdict in a case relating to conduct of elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following dissolution of the two provincial assemblies.
“It was not for the ECP to wring its hands and then bow under the weight of its own professed inability to persuade or cajole the executive to obey the constitutional command of Article 220 and pass an unconstitutional order of pushing forward the election by several months,” Pakistan apex court judge Justice Munib Akhtar said in a judgement earlier this month.
He said that the election commission must seek relief from the apex court instead of postponing the polls on its own.
The experts believe that the judgement has laid down a principle which will have implications for the upcoming elections. If the constitutional requirement is taken into consideration, then the elections should be held on November 8.
“The election schedule will also be announced keeping in view the amended delimitation schedule,” the ECP said in a press release and highlighted that the move to squeeze the timeline for delimitation was taken based on feedback from the political parties.
