ISLAMABAD: After Prime Minister Imran Khan urged the country to prepare for the next general election in three months, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which is understaffed, has begun figuring out how to hold the polls on time.
Two ECP seats became vacant on July 26, 2022, when Justice (retd) Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi (Punjab) and former justice Irshad Qaiser (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) retired. No appointments could be made on these previously due to the impasse between the previous government and the opposition.
According to ECP sources, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, along with two other ECP members, has taken an active role in tackling the mammoth task of holding the elections and making necessary arrangements prior to the final event.
“Legislation, EVMs, and voting mechanisms for overseas Pakistanis, in addition to conducting constituency delimitation, is a significant challenge for us, and we have begun consultations while addressing some issues,” sources quoted him as saying.
The commission is said to be caught in a Catch-22 situation, despite having begun related consultations in light of the National Assembly’s dissolution and other pending Supreme Court of Pakistan actions.
In February, Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar inaugurated the National Census Coordination Centre. He stated at the time that Pakistan’s first-ever digitised census would be completed in a 30-day period in August 2022.
Section 17 (2) of the Elections Act 2017 requires the commission to delimit constituencies following the official notification of each census: The current delimitation was conducted under a one-time waiver of the legal provision using provisional results from the 2017 census. Despite the fact that the final results of the national census were published in May last year, the commission was unable to conduct delimitation, the reason given being the former PTI government’s decision to conduct a new census. “While there are numerous ifs and buts ahead of us, the commission will not disappoint the nation and will go all-out to meet the challenge,” the ECP chief told the sources.
According to sources, the law provides for a one-month period for objections, followed by a hearing process. If the objections are heard concurrently, this may be advantageous in light of the limited time available.
Additionally, the ECP issued a brief statement clarifying that it made no statement regarding the elections.
PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, for his part, said the ECP is a constitutional institution tasked with the responsibility of conducting free and fair elections. He emphasized that the prime minister has the constitutional authority to call elections at any time by recommending the assembly’s dissolution.
“If this is the case, why is the ECP not prepared?” he asserted. What purpose do they have for withholding salaries? Why are they still in office if they are unable to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities?”
Meanwhile, former Minister of State for Information Farrukh Habib tweeted to reiterate that the ECP is required to hold elections within 90 days under Article 224 of the Constitution.
