PESHAWAR: A lawyer on Friday petitioned the Peshawar High Court against the notification of the Election Commission of Pakistan for the delimitation of countrywide constituencies and its “steps to delay” general elections.

While requesting the court to declare the ECP’s Aug 17 notification for delimitation of constituencies illegal, petitioner Naeem Ahmad Khattak also sought orders for the protection of the period specified by the Constitution’s Article 224 for the holding of polls in the country.

He also called for contempt proceedings under Article 204 of the Constitution against Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and four members of the commission for “violating” the April 4 Supreme Court orders for conducting elections in Punjab on May 14, 2023.

The petition is filed through advocate Ali Azim Afridi and has the Election Commission of Pakistan through its secretary, the CEC, four ECP members, and secretary of the Supreme Judicial Council as respondents.

Lawyer requests court to ensure holding of general polls on time

The petitioner insisted that the people at the helm of affairs, including the respondents, were responsible for organising and conducting elections honestly, fairly and in accordance with the law but they had been taking measures to delay the same.

He said that the ECP, by issuing a notification and news release on Aug 17, had choreographed a systematic plan with systemic overtones allowing a delay in the holding of elections in the country at the cost of dispensing with mandatory constitutional provisions.

The petitioner contended that in the news release, based on the impugned notification, the respondents “shadowed legal obligation over constitutional dispensation.”

“Back-to-back commandments reflecting a delay in general elections are, more or less and seemingly, an addition to wish-list of a few persons having constitutional duties and responsibilities on their end,” he said.

The petitioner contended that the ECP’s impugned notification was uncalled-for as well as against the Constitution and law.

He contended that the notification offended and impinged upon provisions guaranteeing fundamental rights in the Constitution.

The petitioner said that the timely conduct of elections was a constitutionally embedded right.

He contended that when law required a thing to be done in particular manner then, it should be done in that manner as anything done in conflict of the command of law shall be unlawful being prohibited.

The petitioner insisted that the ECP had no powers under the Constitution to delay the issuance of election schedule.

He added that it was cardinal principle of law and justice that what cannot be done directly could not be done indirectly.

Through the impugned notification, the Election Commission of Pakistan issued the schedule for the delimitation of the countrywide constituencies in line with official results of the 7th Population and Housing Census, 2023.

According to the schedule, the delimitation process began on Aug 17 and will culminate with the final delimitation publication on Dec 14, 2023.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2023