New Delhi: Pakistan President Arif Alvi Wednesday sent a proposal to its Chief Election Commissioner recommending that the next General Election should be held on 6 November — the latest development in the tussle over when the polls should be held.
This comes over a month after the National Assembly and power was handed over to a caretaker government led by interim Prime Minister Anwar-ul Haq Kakar.
🚨🚨#BREAKING: President @ArifAlvi fixed 6th November polling day for next general elections in #Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/WfqG0T6tkm
— Asad Ali Toor (@AsadAToor) September 13, 2023
A caretaker Prime Minister is the acting head of government, appointed to ensure free and fair elections in the country within 90 days of dissolution of the National Assembly, according to Article 224 of the Pakistan Constitution.
The letter comes at a time when there are differing opinions in the country over when the elections should be held. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been pushing for the election to be held beyond the constitutionally mandated cutoff, saying that it should be held after it concludes its post-census delimitation exercise.
Significantly, Section 17(2) of the country’s Elections Act mandates that the Election Commission of Pakistan conduct a delimitation exercise of constituencies after a new census is officially published.
The 2023 Digital Census was conducted from 1 March to 1 April and was notified in August.
Writing to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, President Alvi observed that Article 48(5) of the Constitution, “empowers and mandates the president ‘to appoint a date not later than 90 days from the date of the dissolution, for the holding of a general election to the Assembly’”.
Hence, the letter notes, “in terms of Article 48(5), the general election to the National Assembly should be held by the 89th day of the date of dissolution of the National Assembly, i.e. Monday, 6th day of November 2023”.
Also Read: Why Pakistan rupee depreciated dramatically under caretaker PM’s first 3 weeks in power
The tussle over election
In his letter to the CEC, Alvi said that the CEC was invited for a meeting last month in order to fulfill constitutional mandates and discuss the announcement of the election date but the former had declined it.
Alvi has held two meetings with interim Law Minister Ahmed Irfan Aslam over the past month to convince the caretaker government to expedite the process. In both meetings, the law ministry informed the president that it was the ECP’s domain to hold elections and that the process of delimitation of constituencies was under way.
According to changes made to the Election Act, 2017, earlier this year, the law now gives the right to announce the date of election to the ECP, not the president.
Alvi acknowledges the Election Commission’s responsibility to announce the election date in his letter: it says that all four provincial governments in the country — Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan — were of the opinion that the announcement of the election date was the ECP’s mandate.
But it also advises the ECP, in “consultation with provincial governments and political parties under the relevant provisions of the Constitution and in view that some of these matters are already subjudice, may seek guidance from the superior judiciary for announcement of a single date for general election to the national and provincial assemblies”.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: India calling itself Bharat fulfills Pakistan’s age-old wish