PTI, which had been the most vocal in demand for the date, welcomed the ECP\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n
Party\u2019s Senator Syed Ali Zafar also hoped that the elections would not be further delayed.<\/p>\n
Information Secretary Raoof Hasan, in a statement shared on social media, welcomed the Supreme Court\u2019s order to the chief election commissioner to meet the president and decide the date. However, he added that mere order \u201cwas not enough\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nPTI seeks action against CEC for \u2018violating Constitution\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201c[CEC] Sikandar Sultan is a contemnor of the Constitution four times over: he failed to hold by-elections to the vacant National Assembly seats; he failed to hold elections for the dissolved provincial assemblies of Punjab and KP; and he delayed the holding of national elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the assembly. He has knowingly and consciously violated the Constitution for which he has rendered himself liable to punishment as prescribed in the Constitution,\u201d the PTI leader claimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe also owes an apology twice over: to the office of the president, who is the supreme commander of the armed forces and a symbol of the federation, and to the whole nation, whose right to vote as enshrined in the Constitution was denied to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Hasan also demanded the Supreme Court punish Mr Raja, saying if he was let off scot-free, \u201cthe tradition of violation of the Constitution will become a norm, thus denying people their rights as citizens of the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
The PPP, PML-N, MQM-P and other parties have also hailed the ECP\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cPML-N is the only party ready for elections as we are the first one to invite applications from Nov 1,\u201d party\u2019s spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, told Dawn<\/em>.<\/p>\nShe added that PML-N had constituted an election cell, a manifesto committee and parliamentary boards in poll preparations.<\/p>\n
PML-N leader Irfan Siddiqui told Geo News<\/em> that the ECP announcement will ensure stability in the country.<\/p>\n\u201cI welcome this development even more because the announcement came from the Supreme Court, which has increased its sanctity,\u201d the PML-N leader said while referring to the earlier proceedings in the apex court.<\/p>\n
He said it would be difficult for the ECP to backtrack on this date since the poll date was shared with the country\u2019s top court.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that elections will take on time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
PPP\u2019s Nayyer Bukhari has said that his party has been calling for holding timely elections.<\/p>\n
Talking to Geo News<\/em>, the PPP leader, however, added that elections should have been held within 90 days as per the Constitution.<\/p>\n\u201cUnelected individuals or cabinet do not have the right to rule the country\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Bukhari said the ECP was answerable to the people and the Supreme Court for not holding elections within the 90-day constitutional limit.<\/p>\n
MQM-P\u2019s Aminul Haque said democratic traditions should be taken forward, and for that, free and fair elections must be held, Geo News<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n\u201cMQM-P demands that the failure of the RTS system in 2018 and release of election results after 72 hours should be avoided in the next elections, and all parties should get a level playing field,\u201d said Mr Haque.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP), the newest political party on the block, hoped ECP would fulfil its constitutional duty of holding free and fair elections, APP<\/em> reported.<\/p>\nIPP central leader Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday said her party welcomed the ECP\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n
Addressing a press conference along with former MPA Mian Mamoon Jafar Tarar in Kullu Tarar area of Hafizabad, she said that to ensure constitutional supremacy, the ECP should provide an ideal environment and atmosphere for the voters to exercise their rights.<\/p>\n
Ms Awan said the caretaker government should support the ECP to bring Pakistan to the path of real development and prosperity.<\/p>\n
Ikram Junaidi in Islamabad and Zulqernain Tahir in Lahore also contributed to this report<\/em><\/p>\nPublished in Dawn, November 3rd, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KARACHI: Major political parties have welcomed the announcement of the general elections\u2019 date and hailed it as a \u2018positive development\u2019. The Election Commission of Pakistan, on Thursday, announced that polls will be held on Feb 8, 2024. PTI, which had been the most vocal in demand for the date, welcomed the ECP\u2019s announcement. Party\u2019s Senator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/03092010a464245.jpg?r=092016","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}