Polling must take place within ninety days following the dissolution of the assembly: The court is irritated with the LHC governor’s lawyer for being “unprepared,” and notices have been issued requesting responses from Balighur Rehman and ECP by February 3.
As he swore to “fight for democracy,” Justice Jawad Hassan of the Lahore High Court (LHC) stated on Monday that elections must be held within 90 days after the dissolution of an assembly.
Asad Umar, the secretary general of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), filed a plea with the court asking for guidance from the relevant authorities about the announcement of the Punjab Assembly election date.
PTI’s legal representative Barrister Ali Zafar asked the court to order Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman to declare the election date during the hearings.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should be added as a party to the case, Justice Jawad Hassan instructed the PTI, even though he agreed with the deadline for holding the elections.
The PTI attorney complied while noting that despite the governor receiving a letter from the ECP, he had not yet replied to the electoral watchdog. The ECP also supports us on this matter, he said.
The court asked the governor’s attorney, who had been summoned to the dais, what his position was on the delay; however, the attorney said that he needed more time to prepare.
The judge was alarmed by the counsel’s reaction, noting that the respondent didn’t seem to be treating the situation seriously.
An major legal problem has been highlighted in the PTI’s motion, Justice Jawad said, and he sent notifications to Governor Punjab and the ECP requesting their responses by February 3.
It should be remembered that the ECP submitted letters with proposed dates for elections for the provincial assembly to the provincial governors of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) earlier this month.
Express News reports that the electoral watchdog suggested April 9 to 13 for the Punjab Assembly elections and April 15 to 17 for the K-P Assembly elections and requested the corresponding governors to choose a date within the suggested window.
According to the letter, the governor must decide on a date in K-P between April 15 and April 17 and notify the authorities. Similar to this, the Punjab Election Commission is required to hold elections before April 13.
According to Article 224 of the Constitution, “in case a national assembly or provincial assembly is dissolved, a general election to the Assembly shall be held within ninety days of the dissolution of the Assembly,” the letter continued that it was the responsibility of the ECP to hold general elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the assemblies.
