ISLAMABAD: Chief Election Commi­ssioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja has summoned a meeting to discuss the holding of general elections to the provincial assembly of Punjab.

The meeting of the Election Commi­ssion of Pakistan (ECP) — to be held on Monday — was summoned a day after Lahore High Court’s direction to hold elections in the province within 90 days.

An official said the ECP would finalise the plan to implement the LHC verdict.

On Friday, a meeting of the commission’s top officials considered President Arif Alvi’s letter to the CEC seeking immediate announ­ce­ment of dates for elections to the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assemblies.

The ECP also discussed the Ministry of Interior’s letter refusing to provide army and civil armed forces’ troops for security duties during elections.

Apart from this, the ECP took up the matter of the paucity of funds for the polling exercise after the finance ministry’s refusal to provide funds in the wake of the bleak economic situation. The meeting also discussed the security concerns presented by Punjab and KP’s chief secretaries and police chief.

LHC verdict

The polls in Punjab are to be held within the constitutional timeframe of 90 days after the LHC’s verdict on Thursday.

Justice Jawad Hassan passed the order allowing petitions of PTI and others, seeking directions for the governor and the ECP to immediately announce a date for the elections.

The court had directed the ECP to immediately announce the date for elections after consultation with the governor, in his capacity as the constitutional head of the province.

The Punjab and KP assemblies — where the PTI had governments — were dissolved on January 14 and January 18, respectively. Thus, the polls must be held between April 14 and 18.

However, so far, the governors of the two provinces have refra­ined from providing any date for the polls on several pretexts.

Earlier this week, KP Governor Haji Ghulam Ali met his Punjab counterpart Balighur Rehman and agreed that the country could not afford separate elections in the current circumstances.

Therefore, polls for national and provincial assemblies should be held later this year after the completion of the federal government’s tenure in August.

“Pakistan can’t afford two separate elections as billions of rupees will be spent on the exercise,” the Punjab governor had told reporters after the meeting.

“As the general elections are going to take place later this year, demand for an early election in two provinces seems out of place keeping in view economic woes of the country.”

During his various media interactions since the provincial assembly was dissolved, the KP governor linked fresh polls with improvement in the province’s security and economic situation.

He had also hinted at a possible delay in polls, saying political forces should focus on finding solutions to fix the financial and security situation and not the elections.

The government’s intention not to hold polls in the two provinces within 90 days has added to the PTI’s frustration which has linked its ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ with the inordinate delay.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2023