ISLAMABAD: The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Sikandar Sultan Raja, and President Arif Alvi concurred on Thursday that the forthcoming general elections are scheduled to transpire across Pakistan on the 8th of February in the year 2024.
This pivotal development unfolded subsequent to a delegation from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), led by the venerable CEC Raja and accompanied by the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP), Mansoor Usman Awan, converging upon President Alvi at the hallowed precincts of the Presidential Secretariat. The primary agenda of their rendezvous was to deliberate upon the imminent general elections and its temporal placement, as expounded in an official statement issued by President Alvi’s office.
In a resounding chorus of deliberation, it was unanimously resolved that the electoral pageantry shall grace the national landscape on the auspicious Thursday, denoted as the 8th of February. The aforementioned statement aptly encapsulated the essence of their consensus.
The convocation between these two esteemed entities transpired by virtue of a judicial edict issued by the Supreme Court, which, in its sagacity, directed the election commission to partake in consultations with the head of state and subsequently apprise the judicial exchequer regarding the scheduled general elections date on the morrow, which corresponds to a Friday.
The Election Commission, in the court’s conclave held earlier today, wherein a litany of petitions vociferously clamored for the expeditious conduct of general elections throughout the nation, had initially proffered a prospective date of the 11th of February. However, the august tribunal proffered the commission a prescription to consult with the incumbent president, thus affirming its commitment to an equitable adjudication of matters.
Following the zenith of concord, AGP Awan and CEC Raja now stand as the emissaries charged with the solemn task of communicating the auspicious decision to the apex court.
The legal edict, elucidated in the post-hearing proclamation, charged AGP Awan with the solemn duty of convening the momentous parley between the Election Commission and President Alvi. It further enjoined the venerable president with the dispensation of the court’s decree and mandated his perpetual readiness to provide any requisite succor.
The effusion of the court’s pronouncement, contained within its august decree, expressed sanguinity regarding the expeditious resolution of the electoral timetable, with the commitment of a prompt disclosure on the forthcoming Friday.
PTI, PPP, PML-N Response on Pakistan General Elections Date:
The prominent political entities of Pakistan, namely the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), all extended their salutations in response to the Election Commission’s announcement that general elections is set to unfurl on the 11th of February in the year 2024.
Extolling the heralded announcement, Nayyer Bukhari of the PPP expounded on his party’s unwavering advocacy for the timely orchestration of electoral processes. “In conformity with the constitutional tenets,” he opined, “an unelected individual or cabinet ought not to arrogate the prerogative of governance over the land. The general elections must be solemnized within the stipulated 90-day purview, as enshrined in the sacrosanct Constitution.”
A senior luminary of the PML-N, Ayaz Sadiq, lauded the announcement as a commendable prologue to the forthcoming electoral tableau, all while reiterating the primacy of the Election Commission in determining the electoral calendar.
Irfan Siddiqui, another dignitary within the ranks of the PML-N, echoed the sentiment, deeming the Election Commission’s declaration as a harbinger of stability and commending its augmentation by the imprimatur of the Supreme Court.
Barrister Ali Zafar, the legal counsel representing PTI, underscored the historicity of the Supreme Court’s deliberations, elucidating how the specter of ambiguity shrouding the electoral schedule had been duly exorcised. “Amidst the cacophony of conflicting conjectures,” he expounded during a media interaction following the court’s proceedings, “the court has dispelled all doubts. The elections are mandated to unfold within 90 days from the dissolution of the assemblies.”
With an exhortation directed at the Election Commission, Barrister Zafar implored the institution to promulgate an election timetable in adherence to the sacrosanct Constitution, duly following consultations with President Arif Alvi, as ordained by the august tribunal. He celebrated this moment as a long-awaited harbinger of electoral tidings.
The land has languished in a miasma of political uncertainty ever since the Imran Khan administration was unseated through a vote of no confidence in April of the year 2022.
The government led by Shehbaz Sharif took the momentous decision to dissolve the National Assembly on the 9th of August, prompting an analogous dissolution of the assemblies in Sindh and Balochistan, thereby affording the electoral authority the temporal bandwidth to conduct elections within the prescribed window of 90 days.
The constitutional mandate enjoined the electoral body to orchestrate the general elections within a span of 60 days had the assemblies been dissolved in accordance with the stipulated timeline. However, the Election Commission, upon receiving the imprimatur of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), shortly preceding the assemblies’ dissolution, in its wisdom approved the 7th Population and Housing Census for the year 2023.
This pivotal CCI endorsement concomitantly obligated the commission to conduct general elections post a meticulous revision of electoral constituencies in accordance with the fresh census data.
In consequence, on the 17th of August, the Election Commission solemnly announced the calendar for the recalibration of electoral constituencies, a peremptory response to the new census findings.
Nevertheless, come September, the commission made an announcement that the general elections would transpire during the closing week of January in the year 2024.
In the same month, the Election Commission also issued the provisional dossier delineating the realignment of electoral constituencies. However, in a prelude to this announcement, a plethora of petitions found their way to the Supreme Court, all of them beseeching the august tribunal to ensure the timely conduct of elections within the constitutionally enshrined period of 90 days.
It is worth noting that these petitions were registered during the tenure of the erstwhile Chief Justice, Umar Ata Bandial. Regrettably, they remained unattended and unadjudicated, languishing in legal limbo.
General Information Published By PEN to AI