President Mamnoon Hussain has the Trump Card for Pakistani politics in 2018
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ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain doesn’t require formal proposal from the interim premier to announce the date for the parliamentary polls as the Elections Act has expressly provided that he will consult with the <link> <link> <link> ECP <link> to the effect.
President Mamnoon Hussain will announce the date of the upcoming parliamentary polls after consultation with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the caretaker government will not have anything to do with it.
The Elections Act gives this right or power to the president in the instant case. There is no mention in its Section 57 “notification of election programme” or anywhere else of his consultation with the interim setup to give the date of elections.
Section 11 of the Representation of People Act (ROPA), which was abolished after its merger in the Elections Act last year, had provided that as soon as may be necessary and practicable the president makes an announcement of the date or dates on which the polls shall be taken, the <link> <link> <link> ECP <link>not later than thirty days of such announcement will call upon a constituency to elect a representative or representatives.
In pursuance of this provision, the then president Asif Ali Zardari had in March 2013 acted on a summary sent to him by the interim prime minister and announced the date of the parliamentary polls.
In the present case, it appears that the president doesn’t require consultations with or a formal proposal from the interim premier to announce the date for the parliamentary polls as the Elections Act has expressly provided that he will consult with the <link> <link> <link> ECP <link> to the effect.