Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) filed a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court against delay in elections in Punjab. PTI leaders Asad Umar and Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani and Punjab Assembly Speaker Mohammad Sibtain Khan have filed the joint petition. They have made Election Commission of Pakistan, federal government, Punjab and KP governments and others respondents in the case. The party maintained in the petition that the ECP’s order “is in violation of the Constitution as well as the judgement of the apex court order”. The petition added that the party has approached the SC as “the matter involved in the petition is of public importance with reference to enforcement of fundamental rights of the millions of people of Pakistan,

particularly the people of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P)”. In a surprising development, the electoral watchdog earlier this week delayed the election in Punjab until October 8 on the grounds that it could not conduct transparent and peaceful polls on the scheduled date of April 30. It said that the elections could not be held in Punjab under the circumstances conveyed to it by the law-enforcement agencies, finance, defence and interior ministries, Punjab chief secretary and others, who all opposed the polls on various grounds.

Subsequently, the ECP withdrew its notification regarding the elections in Punjab and postponed the voting for the provincial assembly until October 8, 2023, adding that a fresh election schedule would be announced in due course. Earlier this month, the apex court ordered that President Arif Alvi should announce the date of the Punjab Assembly election, while the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) governor would set the election date for the K-P assembly in consultation with the ECP. A five-judge larger bench of the apex court on March 1 gave a 3-2 split verdict on a suo motu case about the election date for the two provincial assemblies after holding hearing for two days. The Punjab Assembly was dissolved by then chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi in January on the instructions of PTI Chairman Imran Khan. Imran had also ordered the dissolution of the K-P Assembly, which was also dissolved in the same month.