{"id":3347,"date":"2023-09-12T13:54:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T13:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/who-holds-the-power-to-announce-the-election-date\/"},"modified":"2023-09-12T13:54:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T13:54:15","slug":"who-holds-the-power-to-announce-the-election-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/who-holds-the-power-to-announce-the-election-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Who holds the power to announce the election date?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dawn.com speaks to legal experts to hear their takes on this question.<\/p>\n

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Will he or won\u2019t he?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is the question that\u2019s on observers\u2019 minds as reports<\/a> swirl that President Arif Alvi would unilaterally announce an election date.<\/p>\n

Since the president signed off on the National Assembly\u2019s dissolution<\/a> on August 9, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has kept mum on the matter.<\/p>\n

Ideally, in this case, elections should be held within 90 days of August 9. However, the outgoing PDM government\u2019s decision to approve<\/a> the 2023 census had complicated matters. The decision was followed by the ECP\u2019s announcement of a delimitation schedule, which effectively ruled out<\/a> the possibility of polls this year.<\/p>\n

The president then invited the chief election commissioner to deliberate<\/a> on an election date, saying he was duty-bound, according to Article 48 (5) of the Constitution<\/a>, to get the elections conducted in the 90 days\u2019 prescribed period once the National Assembly was dissolved prematurely.<\/p>\n

Alvi\u2019s RSVP was spurned in a terse letter<\/a>, with the ECP chief saying recent amendments to the election laws<\/a> meant meeting the president would be of \u201cscant importance\u201d.<\/p>\n

The amendments the chief election commissioner was referring to were Sections 57 and 58 of the Election Act 2017, which allow the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to bypass the president and unilaterally announce election dates.<\/p>\n

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