LAHORE - Punjab Assembly Speaker Mohammad Sibtain Khan has called upon the President of Pakistan to appoint a date for Punjab Assembly elections as the matter was being deliberately delayed by the Election Commission in violation of the Constitution. In a letter written to President Arif Alvi, the assembly speaker has drawn attention of the president to Section 57 (1) of the Elections Act, 2017 which empowers him (the president) to fulfil the constitutional requirement of holding the general elections within the stipulated period. “Therefore, it is in the fitness of things that the date of elections to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab is immediately announced to avoid any further breach/ violation of the Constitution and the law”, says the concluding paragraph of speaker’s letter. The assembly speaker has also maintained in his letter that the Election Commission’s failure to abide by its constitutional duty and the directions of the court indicated a gross violation of the Constitution which calls for immediate intervention by the head of the state [president]. The speaker has also reminded the president of his constitutional obligations under Article 42 (Third schedule of the Constitution) to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution”.
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