ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain doesn’t require formal proposal fromthe interim premier to announce the date for the parliamentary polls as theElections Act has expressly provided that he will consult with thelink>link>link>ECPlink> to the effect.

President Mamnoon Hussain will announce the date of the upcomingparliamentary polls after consultation with the Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP) and the caretaker government will not have anything to dowith it.

The Elections Act gives this right or power to the president in the instantcase. There is no mention in its Section 57 “notification of electionprogramme” or anywhere else of his consultation with the interim setup togive the date of elections.

Section 11 of the Representation of People Act (ROPA), which was abolishedafter its merger in the Elections Act last year, had provided that as soonas may be necessary and practicable the president makes an announcement ofthe date or dates on which the polls shall be taken, thelink>link>link>ECPlink>not later than thirty days of suchannouncement will call upon a constituency to elect a representative orrepresentatives.

In pursuance of this provision, the then president Asif Ali Zardari had inMarch 2013 acted on a summary sent to him by the interim prime minister andannounced the date of the parliamentary polls.

In the present case, it appears that the president doesn’t requireconsultations with or a formal proposal from the interim premier toannounce the date for the parliamentary polls as the Elections Act hasexpressly provided that he will consult with thelink>link>link>ECPlink> to the effect.