The Supreme Court has ordered the Election Commission to hold elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa within 90 days.
The decision was 3-2, with Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Jamal Khan Mandokhail dissenting from the majority verdict. The ruling was backed by CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Munib Akhtar, and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.
Regarding its suo motu notice regarding the delay in announcing the poll date for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Supreme Court ruled that the President can announce a poll date if the governor chooses not to dissolve the assembly.
The larger bench ruled that the President’s April 9 election date for Punjab would be valid, while the Supreme Court of Pakistan invalidated the President’s election date for KP.
The court further decided that the ECP could set a new election date in urgent consultation with the president and governor if the elections in Punjab could not be held on April 9.
The KP governor violated his constitutional obligation, the court observed, by failing to announce the election date. The court added that after dissolving the assembly, the KP governor was required to announce a date for the elections.
The president and governor must be consulted by the ECP, according to the Supreme Court.
The apex court directed all the stakeholders including the federal government to assist the ECP in holding the elections.
Pronouncing its judgement reserved a day earlier, the five-judge larger bench of the apex court through a split verdict of 3-2 declared that holding elections within 90 days is mandatory in accordance with the Constitution.
The verdict was announced by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Wednesday. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Jamal Khan did not agree with the verdict.
The verdict was reserved yesterday after the day-long hearing of the suo motu proceedings of the case which ended at 5:15pm on Tuesday.
The verdict states that Justices Shah and Mandokhail dissented from the majority opinion and objected to the maintainability of the suo motu proceedings.
Justices Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, and Muhammad Ali Mazhar were among the five judges who made up the larger bench under the leadership of Chief Justice of Pakistan Bandial.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the PDM government were urged by CJP Bandial during yesterday’s hearing to meet and set a date for elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab by 4 p.m.
The top judge remarked: “It is compulsory to hold elections. Our priority is to follow the constitution. The hurdles can be removed after the announcement of the election date. If there is any big issue, then parties can resort to the court.”
The CJP went on to say: “No constitutional institution could extend its tenure. Apart from the court, no one could be allowed to extend the (90-day) election period. The court could issue the order after taking into account solid reasons. Article 254 obscures the matter of poll delay but it does not issue a licence to delay the polls beyond 90 days. If elections were not held on time, then stability will not be returned. Nobody is questioning the sincerity of the government. Today, we have to look into the matter regarding the announcement of the date for the elections. If the poll date extends 90-day period, this could be challenged by someone in a court of law.”