Too soon?: ECP issued notice on by-poll plea

LAHORE: Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on a petition challenging the by-election schedule for two provincial assembly seats in Dera Ghazi Khan. The judge sought a reply from the ECP by April 10. Petitioner Shahid Pervez Jami submitted that the ECP’s scheduling of the PP-245 and PP-243 by-elections for May 7 was against the law and the Constitution. He said that the ECP was supposed to announce the election schedule within 60 days of the election and hold the polls after that, but it had scheduled the polls for these two seats within 35 days of the seats becoming vacant.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2012.