ECP secretary says Commission is well aware of its constitutional obligations but Constitution doesn’t empower it to fix poll dates
n Provincial governors have already been approached, however, they responded without announcing any election dates.
ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has held that it could not enter into consultations with the president over the provincial assemblies’ elections as the matter was in the courts. It is to be mentioned here that President Alvi on Friday last had invited Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja for an ‘urgent meeting’ on February 20 (today) for consultations on the dates for the elections in the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces. The meeting was scheduled to take place at the Aiwan-e-Sadr here in accordance with Section 57(1) of the Elections Act, 2017, which provides that the president is entrusted to announce the date for the elections after consulting the Election Commission of Pakistan.
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In reply to the second letter by President Arif Alvi, the ECP said: "The Commission is well aware of its constitutional and legal obligations and has already conveyed its response to the earlier letter, dated February 8, 2023, explaining the complete background (of the matter)”. The letter penned by Election Commission of Pakistan Secretary Omar Hamid Khan maintained that after the dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, the governors were approached for the appointment of election dates as per the dictates of the Constitution. It added that the governors have responded to the letters sent by the ECP but did not announce a date for the polls. In compliance with the Lahore High Court (LHC) orders, the ECP said, a consultation was held with Punjab governor on February 14, but he "regretted to announce an election date and informed that he would avail legal remedy against the judgment of the LHC as it was not binding on him".
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The ECP also mentioned the intra-court appeals it has filed against the LHC order as it was asked by the court to hold consultations “without any such provisions having been provided in the Constitution, alongside other writ petitions presently pending in the Peshawar High Court’. “It is clarified that the Constitution does not empower the Commission to appoint a poll date in case of the dissolution of a provincial assembly by the governor or due to afflux of time as provided in Article 112(1) of the Constitution,” the letter said further. The ECP also stressing the sub-judice nature of the matter and regretted that it “may not enter into a process of consultation with the office of the president” but maintained that “the final decision in the matter will be taken by the commission in its meeting scheduled to be held on Monday”.