ECP gears up for assemblies’ elections

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has geared up preparations for the elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and it is likely to release the schedule on Monday or Tuesday.

Sources say that the commission has started preparing the election schedule and there is a strong possibility that the Election Commission will release the schedule on Monday or Tuesday.

The Election Commission has decided not to take DROs and ROs from the judiciary and not to write any more letters to the registrar of the Lahore High Court (LHC) for provincial elections.

The commission has requested the list of DROs and ROs from the provincial election commissioner, who will send the list to the commission on Sunday. The training of officers will be started next week as well.

According to sources, the Election Commission has estimated the expenses of Punjab and K-P elections. It is estimated that more than RS30 billion will be spent in both provinces.

Sources say that the Election Commission has decided to write a letter to the Finance Ministry next week. In the letter, the Ministry of Finance will be instructed to release Rs25 billion immediately.

The Election Commission will also write a letter to the Ministry of Interior next week for the deployment of security forces in the elections.

It is worth mentioning here that President Dr Arif Alvi announced the date after considering the dates suggested by the Election Commission.

Meanwhile, a civil miscellaneous application was filed in the LHC seeking directions to the Election Commission to immediately announce the election schedule after the announcement of the election date in Punjab.

The petition was filed by a citizen named Munir Ahmed through Advocate Azhar Siddique contending the court that the ECP and all executives across Pakistan are bound to hold elections in a free, fair, transparent manner and guarded against corrupt practices as directed under Article 218 (3) read with Article 220 as well as the recent judgments passed by LHC and Supreme Court (SC) on the subject.

With additional input from our correspondent in Lahore.