ISLAMABAD – President Arif Alvi has decided to withdraw a notificationregarding announcement of a date for general elections in KhyberPakhtunkhwa.
Senior lawyer Salman Akram Raja told this to the five-member bench of theSupreme Court of Pakistan during the hearing of the suo motu case regardingan apparent delay in elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab whereassemblies were dissolved in January.
On Feb 20, President Alvi announced that general elections in Punjab andKhyber Pakhtunkhwas will be held on April 9 as the Election Commission ofPakistan and governors of the provinces could not announced a date despitedissolution of the assemblies.
During the today hearing, Raja, who represented the president in the case,said Alvi would soon withdraw the notification only regarding theannouncement of date for elections in KP. Since the KP provincial assemblywas dissolved by the governor, he had the authority to give the date forthe elections, the lawyer said.
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He further said the notification regarding election date in Punjab wouldnot be withdrawn as its assembly was not dissolved by the governor.
“The Governors of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are not performing theirconstitutional duties for appointing a date, not later than ninety daysfrom the date of dissolution of Provincial Assemblies as per theConstitution of Pakistan. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is alsonot fulfilling its constitutional obligation for holding polls for theAssemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Both the constitutionaloffices are placingthe ball in each other’s court, resulting in delay andcreating a serious danger that constitutional provisions may be violated,”the president had said in a letter sent to the Chief Election CommissionerSikandar Sultan Raja on Feb 20.
