A day after it agreed to hold general elections in the country on February 8, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday submitted a notification in the Supreme Court pertaining to the polls date — which has been “set in stone”.
After months of anticipation and uncertainty, the electoral body and President Dr Arif Alvi agreed on the date for elections yesterday. The development came after Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja visited the Presidency on orders of the apex court, which had taken up pleas regarding elections.
During the hearing, the ECP had proposed Feb 11 as the date for polls but it was asked by the SC to approach the president for consultations.
The commission will formally inform the top court about the fresh development at the hearing of separate petitions — moved by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), the PTI, Munir Ahmad, and Ibad-ur-Rehman — today.
The case is being heard by a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan.
During the hearing today, Attorney-General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan told the bench that the minutes of President Alvi and the ECP’s meeting would be submitted in court shortly.
“Okay, then we will take up the case in the end,” Justice Isa said, adding that the SC would first conduct routine hearings and then take up the elections case.
After an hour-long recess, AGP Awan presented CEC Raja’s letter regarding the election date before the bench along with the minutes of his meeting with the president.
However, the CJP pointed out that Alvi’s signatures were missing from the record presented in court. He said there was no one in court to represent the president and neither were his official signatures present on the documents, to which the AGP said Alvi had given a separate letter.
Subsequently, the court asked Awan to get documents with Alvi’s signatures and adjourned the hearing for an hour.
Road to elections
The ECP had earlier ruled out elections citing the need for fresh delimitation of constituencies.
Since the National Assembly was dissolved three days before the end of its constitutional term, Article 224 of the Constitution mandates that elections be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the assembly by November 7.
But at the same time, Section 17(2) of the Elections Act states that “the commission shall delimit constituencies after every census is officially published.”
Last month, the commission announced that elections would be held in January 2024 but stopped short of announcing a date, drawing criticism from a number of activists and political parties.
Subsequently, petitions were filed in the SC seeking timely polls. The pleas included one moved by the PTI, which had been returned on September 15 with objections. Another one had been filed by the SCBA in August, which sought directives to the ECP to announce polls within the 90-day time period mandated by the Constitution. The case was taken up on Oct 23.
