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ISLAMABAD, Feb. 22 (PTI) Pakistan’s Supreme Court stepped in on Wednesday to resolve the provincial elections after officials failed to resolve the issue in time.
The parliaments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were dissolved early in January. According to constitutional requirements, polls should be held within 90 days.
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But governors of the two provinces refused to set a date, and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) wasted time instead of pushing for a date, prompting President Arif Alvi to declare 9 April as election day.
However, the federal government’s refusal to accept it on the grounds that Alvi had no right to set a date created a crisis.
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After an apparent impasse, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial automatically took notice of the issue and formed a nine-member bench to hear the matter at 2pm on Thursday.
The judges are Judges Ijazul Ahsan, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Sayyed Mazhar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Athar Minallah.
This suggests the Supreme Court will decide on a date after hearing arguments from the ECP and accepted provincial governments and order the governor or electoral body to announce the election timetable.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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