Elections scheduled for February 11: ECP

The Supreme Court was notified on Thursday by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that elections would take place on February 11, 2024.

This development occurs during the hearing of petitions to have timely national elections. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), and other parties have petitioned the highest court to stop the polls from being delayed.

Sajeel Swati, an attorney for the ECP, stated during today’s session that the general election will take place on February 11, 2024, following the conclusion of the delimitation process, which is scheduled to end on November 30.

When presenting the schedule before the Supreme Court, the ECP’s attorney stated that all preparations, including delimitation, will be finished by January 29.

The attorney estimated that it would take three to five days to provide the final lists after outlining the delimitation procedure. He also said that January 29 is the date that results from counting 54 days starting on December 5.

The attorney stated that in order to facilitate voter participation, the ECP planned to hold polls on Sunday. According to this arrangement, he said, the first Sunday would have been on February 4 and the second on February 11.

“We decided on our own that elections should be held on Sunday, February 11,” the attorney stated.

Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa then questioned the Election Commission’s attorney about President Arif Alvi’s support for this.

Here, another member of the three-person bench, Justice Athar Minallah, stated that the president has the authority to set an election date in accordance with the Constitution.

After hearing these arguments, CJP Isa gave the chief election commissioner instructions to confer with the president and return to the court with findings.

The ECP counsel told the Supreme Court that the elections would be discussed with the president as soon as possible after the hearing got back underway.

“Without entering a constitutional debate, the Election Commission is prepared to hold consultations with President Arif Alvi,” stated Swati.

“Without entering a constitutional debate, the Election Commission is prepared to hold consultations with President Arif Alvi,” stated Swati.

After that, CJP Isa wrote the court orders and gave the attorney general instructions to schedule the meeting between the president and the ECP.

The order stated, “The court expects that the president and the Election Commission will agree on a date and inform the court.”

“The Court anticipates that following their meeting with the president, all issues will be settled. Following their discussion with the president, the Supreme Court will be briefed tomorrow (Friday), the court announced. It further said that the document must be signed by the meeting’s president and anyone else in attendance.

The court further ordered that the president be handed the court’s directives for today’s hearing and the one on October 23.

The court declared, “The court will be present in case of any problems.”

Political unrest has engulfed the nation following the removal of the Imran Khan administration in April 2022 due to a motion of no-confidence.

The National Assembly was prematurely dissolved on August 9 by the Shehbaz Sharif-led administration, which replaced Khan. This allowed the electoral body to call early elections in Sindh and Balochistan and hold national elections within ninety days.

The electoral body was required by the constitution to organize elections in sixty days if the assemblies had been dissolved on schedule.

The Council of Common Interest (CCI) approved the 7th Population and Housing Census 2023 a few days prior to the assemblies’ dissolution, therefore the ECP chose not to hold elections within the allotted period.

The commission was required by the CCI’s consent to hold elections after redrawing the boundaries in light of the census results.

The ECP then declared on August 17 the new delimitation schedule that will be implemented in accordance with the updated census findings.

However, the commission said in September of that year that the nation’s general elections will be held in the final week of January 2024.

The ECP also made available the preliminary report on the delimitation of constituencies in the same month. However, a number of applications challenging the polling delay were submitted to the Supreme Court prior to the declaration.

The petitioners had all urged the supreme court to guarantee that elections take place in less than ninety days.

These petitions were submitted while Umar Ata Bandial was the chief justice, however there was no hearing scheduled for them.