The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Sikandar Sultan Raja, was invited by President Dr. Arif Alvi on Friday to an urgent meeting on February 20 to discuss choosing a date for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The meeting will discuss Section 57(1) of the Elections Act, 2017, which specifies that the president is tasked with announcing the election date after consulting the Election Commission Pakistan. The meeting will take place at Aiwan-i-Sadr (ECP).
Since former premier Imran Khan was ousted in a vote of no-confidence, the PTI has long demanded that immediate elections be held. Imran maintains that only a government with the authority to make the difficult decisions necessary to pull the nation out of the current economic quagmire can do so.
Following the PTI leader’s announcement that his governments in the two provinces would dissolve their assemblies in order to clear the way for new elections, the Punjab and KP assemblies were dissolved on January 18 and January 14, respectively.
The president stated in his letter to the CEC—a copy of which is available at Dawn.com—that significant developments had occurred since his letter of February 8—particularly the rulings by the Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court.
The LHC had instructed the electoral watchdog to immediately announce the date of the elections in Punjab earlier this month. According to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, only the will of the populace can bring about a resolution to all of the nation’s problems.
The commission’s “apathy and inaction” in not responding to his earlier letter as of yet angered the president, who expressed his disappointment.
The president said he had been waiting apprehensively for the ECP to recognise its constitutional obligations to move forward and act accordingly, but he was deeply shocked by the commission’s “poignant approach on this important matter.”
The president reminded the ECP in his letter that he was inviting the CEC to a meeting on February 20 at his office to consult on the date or dates of the general elections because he was “conscious” of his constitutional duty of “preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution.”
Alvi requests that the election date for Punjab and KP be “immediately announced”
On February 8, Alvi sent a letter to the election commission pleading with it to stop spreading “dangerous speculative propaganda” about both the provincial assembly and general elections and “immediately announce” the dates for the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
According to Article 224(2) of the Constitution, an assembly election must be held within 90 days of the dissolution, according to Alvi’s first letter to the CEC.
The president made it clear that the commission would ultimately be held accountable for any violations of the nation’s Constitution if it failed to carry out its functions and duties.
“I am of the firm belief that there are no such circumstances which may provide any justification for delaying or postponing elections, in fact such postponements of constitutionally mandated elections throughout the world in recent history have transformed into serious long-term set-backs to democracy,” he said.
To confirm its intention that elections in Punjab and KP within 90 days would not take place, the ruling coalition has insisted that the nation cannot afford separate elections.
