ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday announced to file a petition in the Supreme Court today (Friday) against the electoral body’s decision of putting off elections in Punjab until October.
In a surprising development on Wednesday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) delayed elections in the province until October 8 on the grounds that it could not conduct transparent and peaceful polls on the scheduled date of April 30.
In an eight-page order, the ECP said that it could not hold the election “honestly, justly and fairly in a peaceful manner due to security threats [and] in the absence of funds” and being unable to provide “level-playing field” to all political parties.
It is worth mentioning that PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz has been demanding ‘level-playing field’ for her party, saying that elections can only be held if Imran Khan is sent behind the bars and disqualified and that her father, Nawaz Sharif, is allowed to return to Pakistan and his disqualification verdict is overturned so as he is able to contest elections.
Subsequently, the ECP withdrew its notification regarding the Punjab elections and postponed the voting for the provincial assembly until October 8, 2023, adding that a fresh election schedule would be announced in due course.
“We have decided to challenge this decision legally and a petition will be filed tomorrow. Barrister Ali Zafar is working on the petition,” said PTI Secretary General Asad Umar on Thursday.
He was addressing a press conference in Lahore flanked by Fawad Chaudhry, the party’s senior vice president.
In the petition, Umar said the party will plead to the apex court to set aside the ECP’s decision which is against the Constitution as well as Supreme Court’s verdict on Punjab and K-P polls.
The PTI leader said they will request the top court to ensure that elections to Punjab Assembly are held on April 30, as per the schedule announced by the ECP earlier in line with court’s order.
Speaking on the occasion, Fawad said the PTI was moving the apex court against the ECP’s “unconstitutional” move and added that as many as 96 lawyers’ bodies of the country including the Supreme Court Bar Association had also rejected the decision to postpone the Punjab polls.
“PTI will fully support if any lawyers’ movement is launched against the ECP decision,” he added.
The ECP order came at a time when it has increasingly become clear that the polls in Punjab may not take place on the stipulated date, while the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) governor has yet to give the timeframe for the assembly election due in the province.
Surprising as it may seem, when all eyes were on the joint session of Parliament and a meeting of the federal cabinet on Wednesday, the ECP released its order, carrying its decision of delaying the elections in Punjab.
In the federal cabinet meeting, the ministers opined that general elections should be held simultaneously across the country as neither was it possible to hold polls in only two provinces nor did the security and monetary situation favour them.
