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The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday suspended a Lahore High Court (LHC) order that stayed<\/a> the appointment of returning officers (ROs) and district returning officers (DROs) from the bureaucracy, and further directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to issue the election schedule by tonight.<\/p>\n The directions came as Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa dictated the order after the hearing of a petition by the ECP challenging the LHC ruling. Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Sardar Tariq Masood were also part of the bench.<\/p>\n The development comes a day after the ECP paused<\/a> a training session for ROs and DROs \u2014 an exercise without which polls on February 8<\/a> could be in trouble.<\/p>\n The ECP\u2019s move had come in response to an LHC order suspending<\/a> the electoral watchdog\u2019s notification regarding the appointment of ROs and DROs from the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n The high court order, which was issued on a petition submitted by the PTI<\/a>, seemingly brought the electoral process to a standstill, causing widespread concern among political parties \u2014 including the petitioner PTI \u2014 regarding general elections.<\/p>\n While announcing the verdict, LHC\u2019s Justice Ali Baqar Najafi had referred the PTI petition to the chief justice with a request to constitute a larger bench to decide the matter.<\/p>\n In its petition in the high court, the PTI had contested the appointments of bureaucrats to act as DROs and ROs for the upcoming general elections and sought the appointment of officials from the lower judiciary for the poll exercise.<\/p>\nThe hearing<\/h2>\n