Islamabad, May 3 (PTI) Pakistan’s top election body on Wednesday filed a review petition with the Supreme Court against its verdict to hold the election in Punjab province on May 14, arguing that the apex court could not fix the dates for the polls.
The apex court on April 4 set the date for polls in the country’s largest province and ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to organise the election in Punjab while directing the federal government to provide Rs 21 billion for conducting the polls.
The coalition government refused to accept the court’s direction, and its efforts to get spare funds were stalled by Parliament, which is dominated by government allies.
The Commission, in its petition, maintained that changing the election programme was the sole domain of the ECP under section 58 of the Elections Act, 2017, and the apex court could not fix the election dates.
The commission further stated that “appointing of date or changing it, is an executive exercise, and certainly not a judicial exercise” and further said that the Supreme Court “should have exercised judicial restraint and could have apportioned responsibility to the Commission”.
It requested the court to “accept the instant Review Petition by revisiting, reviewing, reconsidering and recalling its April 4 order”.
The review petition was filed as it became increasingly clear that the ECP was not prepared to hold elections as the government refused to provide funds and security for the polls.
Meanwhile, the coalition government and former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party are holding negotiations to hold polls for the federal and provincial assemblies on the day in the entire country.
In the last round of talks held on Tuesday night, the two sides agreed in principle that elections should be held on the same day but differed on the date of the polls.
The talks were being held in the backdrop of the controversy with the PTI party seeking early polls – particularly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces where assemblies were dissolved in January – and the government maintaining that provincial and federal elections across the country be held on the same day in October.
The issue of elections has rocked Pakistani politics for months as Khan demanded snap polls when he was voted out of power in April last year. As the PTI chief failed to achieve his goal through protest, he dissolved the assemblies in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in January by using his party’s governments in the two provinces.
The 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician wanted to put pressure on the government, as by the law, elections should be held within 90 days of the dissolution of an assembly.
The ECP review petition may give a face-saving to the Supreme Court, to wriggle out of an unsavoury situation as it is accused of unnecessarily meddling in the electoral and political affairs by fixing a date for elections. PTI SH GRS AKJ GRS
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.