PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Teh­r­e­ek-i-Insaf (PTI) petitioned the Pe­­shawar High Court on Tuesday, se­­e­king directives for the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold ge­­neral elections to the Khyber Pakh­t­u­n­khwa Assembly within 90 days of its dissolution in January and de­­c­lare as unconstitutional the ECP’s order to put off polls until October.

The petition was filed jointly by KP Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani and PTI’s Secretary General Asad Umar requesting to declare as illegal and unconstitutional a letter written by the KP governor to the ECP last month recommending Oct 8 as the election date and an ECP’s subsequent notification to fix that date.

A few days ago, the PTI filed an identical petition in the Supreme Court, but it was returned by the registrar’s office on April 10 on technical grounds. The KP Assembly was dissolved by the governor on Jan 18 on the chief minister’s advice.

In the present case, the petitioners requested the court to declare that general elections to the provincial assembly were to be held not later than 90 days of its dissolution, subject to the barest minimum in present circumstances. They asked the court to direct KP Governor Haji Ghulam Ali or Presi­dent Arif Alvi to announce the election date within the legal framework.

Plea filed by PTI after SC registrar returned similar petition on technical grounds

The respondents in the petition are the ECP through its secretary, the federal government through secretaries of interior, finance and law and justice ministries, President Alvi through his principal secretary, the KP governor through his principal secretary and the provincial chief secretary.

The petitioners contended that the date announced by the KP governor was contrary to the clear mandate of the Constitution and tantamount to depriving the petitioners and all other citizens of this province of the fundamental right guaranteed under Article 17 of the Constitution to contest and participate in elections.

They argued that under Article 242(2) of the Constitution when the national or a provincial assembly was dissolved, a general election must be held within 90 days and the results of the election had to be declared not later than 14 days after the consolidation of results.

Thus, they stated that the intention of the Constitution was that the elections had to be held within the stipulated period and no election could be delayed on the pretext that finances or security officials were not made available by the federal government.

The petitioners said that on Jan 30, the PTI filed a petition in the PHC for holding polls within 90 days. However, that petition was disposed of by the high court after the Supreme Court decided the matter on March 1. The petitioners stated that in relation to KP, the apex court had directed that the governor must announced a date for holding elections to the assembly after consulting the ECP.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2023