In a landmark ruling on Wednesday, Pakistan’s top court said general elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, which have been under caretaker governments since the provincial assemblies were dissolved in January, should be held within 90 days.
Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party dissolved the KP provincial assembly in January, while the chief minister of PTI’s allied party, the PMLQ, dissolved the Punjab assembly the same month, with both moves aimed at forcing the federal government to announce early national elections.
However, the caretaker governors of both provinces declined to give dates for fresh elections and referred the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). As the deadlock continued, the president unilaterally announced polls in both provinces on April 9.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan intervened last week, taking suo motu notice of the situation to settle a matter on which most legal experts say the constitution is clear: elections need to be held within 90 days after the dissolution of an assembly.
“The elections within 90 days after the dissolution of an assembly are mandatory,” Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said while reading the 3-2 judgment.
The verdict said it was the governor’s responsibility to announce the date for the polls in a situation where the dissolution of a provincial assembly was endorsed by him, referring to KP.
However, in the case of Punjab, where the governor refused to sign the summary for the dissolution which was moved by the chief minister and the assembly ceased to exist on its own within 48 hours as per the law, the date for the polls could be announced by the president in consultation with the ECP.
“In relation to the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly, to which the situation described in para 6(b) above applied, the constitutional responsibility for appointing a date for the general election that must follow was to be discharged by the President,” the verdict said. “However, in relation to the dissolution of the KPK Assembly, to which the situation described in para 6(a) above applied, the constitutional responsibility for appointing a date for the general election that must follow was to be discharged by the Governor.”
Referring to President Dr. Arif Alvi unilaterally fixing April 9 as the election date for both the provincial assemblies, the court said the president’s order was “constitutionally competent” for Punjab but “invalid” for KP.
He added that the KP governor was “in breach of his constitutional responsibility” by not appointing a date to hold the elections in his province.
The supreme court also ruled that the date for the Punjab polls given by the president could be changed in consultation with the ECP while the federation was responsible for extending all resources and support to the election commission to hold the polls.
Khan has been leading protests for months now calling for early elections to oust the current government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who says polls will be held later this year when Parliament completes its five-year term.
The Punjab and KP regions account for more than half of the country’s 220 million population and Khan’s party dissolved the assemblies gambling on the national government being unable to afford to hold the provincial elections separately from the national election due by October.
