‘Headway’ in election schedule for Punjab

ECP, Punjab governor to liaise over polls today

ISLAMABAD:

The matter of general elections to the Punjab Assembly saw some progress on Monday after a designated ECP team and Governor Balighur Rehman agreed to meet on Tuesday (today) to hold consultations in an effort to come up with a date for the polls in light of the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) directions.

In response to the electoral watchdog’s request for a meeting, the governor scheduled the meeting with the commission officials at 12pm.

Earlier in the day, a handout released by the ECP said that the body has requested the governor to schedule a meeting on Feb 14 (today) to discuss the date for provincial elections.

Meanwhile, the chief secretary and the Inspector General (IG) Punjab have been also directed to attend the meeting along with the relevant records.

The decision to reach out to the governor was taken during a meeting presided over by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja to review the LHC order to ensure its implementation. ECP Secretary Umer Hameed and other senior officials and members were also in attendance.

The commission said a letter has been written to the governor seeking a suggestion for “an appropriate time” for today’s meeting.

Meanwhile, the ECP secretary has been appointed to head the discussions with the governor, along with ECP Special Secretary Zafar Iqbal Hussain and Director General (Law) Mohammad Arshad.

The designated team would then give a briefing on the talks so that the ECP could decide on the future course of action for holding polls in the province.

Monday’s high-level meeting was summoned by the CEC to discuss the holding of general elections to the provincial assembly of Punjab.

It is pertinent to note that earlier, Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman in his missive to the ECP had declined to fix a date for the poll due to the “economic situation”, advising it to consult “relevant stakeholders” before it announces a date for the polls.

The poll supervisory body has been facing louder calls to announce the date for elections, chiefly from the PTI and, more recently, from President Dr Arif Alvi who urged the commission to immediately issue the election schedule for Punjab and K-P provincial assemblies.

In a letter addressed to CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja, President Alvi said that the election of an assembly is to be held within 90 days of the dissolution as provided by Article 224 (2) of the Constitution.

On Friday, the LHC ordered the ECP to immediately announce the date of elections to the Punjab Assembly after consultation with the governor, in his capacity as the constitutional head of the province, to ensure that polls were held not later than 90 days as per the mandate of the Constitution.

Justice Jawad Hassan passed the order allowing petitions of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and others, seeking directions for the governor and ECP to immediately announce a date for general elections in the province, since the assembly had been dissolved.

The judgement said that Article 105 of the Constitution makes it quite clear that it covers two eventualities — the first eventuality deals with the situation where on the advice of the chief minister, the governor exercises his constitutional power to dissolve the assembly while second eventuality deals with a situation where on such advice by the chief minister, he (governor) abstains from exercising his constitutional powers and the assembly stands dissolved by the operation of the law.