ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court directed the country’s election regulatory authority on Friday to “immediately announce” the date for Punjab polls while pointing out the constitution required the electoral contest to be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the provincial assembly.

The decision was given after former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party filed a petition in the Lahore High Court while requesting it to order the Punjab governor to announce the election date after the assembly was dissolved by former chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on January 14.

However, Governor Balighur Rehman told the court he was not required to announce the date since he had not acted on the chief minister’s advice to dissolve the provincial legislature which ceased to exist on its own 48 hours after Elahi signed the summary for its dissolution.

Justice Jawad Hassan of the Lahore High Court gave his verdict in the matter wherein he issued instructions for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

“The ‘ECP’ is directed to immediately announce the ‘date of election’ of the Provisional Assembly of Punjab with the Notification specifying reasons, after consultation with the Governor of Punjab, being the constitutional Head of the Province, to ensure that the elections are held not later than ninety days as per the mandate of the ‘Constitution’,” said the 16-page verdict, a copy of which is available with Arab News.

The Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies were dissolved by the chief ministers of the two provinces on the instruction of former prime minister Imran Khan who wanted to build pressure on the federal government to call early nationwide elections.

However, there were suspicions that the administration in Islamabad was hoping to postpone the provincial polls after some government functionaries, including law minister Azam Nazir Tarar, hinted at the possibility of delaying the provincial polls while citing economic and political uncertainty in the country.

President Arif Alvi, a Khan ally, wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja on Wednesday, asking him to announce the schedule for Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa polls without further delay.