Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) petition seeking nationwide elections in the country within 90 days was returned by the registrar of the Supreme Court with objections on Thursday.

The plea was returned as the former ruling failed to approach the relevant forums before coming to the apex court.

The PTI had also included President Arif Alvi as a respondent but the registrar was of the view that the head of the state cannot be made part of the petition under Article 248.

“The petition did not mention which fundamental right of the petitioner was violated. The petition does not meet the requirements seeking the court’s intervention under Article 184/3,” the registrar of the Supreme Court further said.

Last month, the PTI had moved the top court seeking its directives to hold general elections in the country within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly.

The petitioner, who is PTI’s Secretary General Omar Ayyub, requested the apex court to direct President Alvi to give a date for the polls and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to issue an election schedule accordingly.

The petition was filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution prays to declare as illegal and void ab initio the decision of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) dated August 5, 2023, approving the census.

This was the second petition filed with the apex court.

Earlier, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Abid S Zubairi had filed the same petition in the apex court.

Filed through Barrister Ali Zafar, the PTI petition also seeks that the notification by the Bureau of Statistics dated August 8, 2023, be declared illegal, unlawful, and void ab initio, while the delimitation exercise proposed to be taken by the ECP, dated August 17, 2023, be declared illegal, unlawful, and void ab initio as well.

“Section 57(1) of the Election Act, 2017, providing that the date of elections is to be fixed by the ECP may be declared to be ultra vires the Constitution and being contrary to Articles 48(5)(a), 58(1), 105(3)(a), 112(1), and 224,” wherein it is stated that the president or governor is to set the date of elections after dissolution by them on the advice of the prime minister or chief minister, the PTI had prayed.

The PTI had made the ECP, the federation, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the Council of Common Interest (CCI), the chief secretaries of Punjab, Khyber, Sindh, Balochistan, and other respondents.

The PTI had further prayed to the apex court that the Sindh governor may also be required to announce the date of elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the Sindh Assembly and the ECP be directed to issue the election schedule accordingly, and same for the Balochistan province.

Meanwhile, the elections to the Punjab and KP assemblies may be held according to the judgments of this court and within a time frame fixed by the court, it had added.