ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday failed to finalize a date for elections in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces as a lack of funds, Pakistan’s deteriorating security situation, and the upcoming month of Ramadan, seem likely to be major hurdles in organizing polls. 

Pakistan’s top court, in a landmark judgment on Wednesday, said elections in both provinces should be held within 90 days. The ruling, however, said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) must propose a date that “deviates to the barest minimum” if the 90-day deadline is not met. 

The controversy was triggered when former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party dissolved the KP provincial assembly in January, while the chief minister of PTI’s allied party, the PMLQ, dissolved the Punjab assembly a few days earlier. 

Both moves were aimed at forcing the federal government to announce early national elections. Pakistan’s top court intervened last week, taking a suo motu notice to determine the dates for polling. 

Sikandar Sultan Raja, the chief of Pakistan’s election regulator, chaired a high-level meeting in his office in Islamabad on Thursday after the apex court’s ruling. “Different options were discussed in the meeting to hold the polls as per the direction of the Supreme Court, but a final decision has yet to be made,” Quratulain Fatima, a spokesperson for the ECP, told Arab News. 

As per the Elections Act, 2017, the election commission requires at least 54 days to complete the election exercise. “We may fix a polling date for both the Punjab and KP assemblies in the last week of April after Eid-Al-Fitr,” an ECP official told Arab News after the meeting, referring to the relaxation given by the Supreme Court on the 90-day deadline. 

The deadline for elections in Punjab and KP expires on April 14 and April 18, respectively. 

The official said the election commission would also need to consult other stakeholders, including the federal government, regarding budget and security issues, before announcing the election schedule. 

“We require a minimum of around 15 billion rupees of additional funds from the finance ministry to hold free and fair elections,” he said, adding that consultations with the KP governor and president would also be as per the Supreme Court’s directives. 

Earlier this month, the finance ministry declined to provide additional funds to the election commission for polls in Punjab and KP, saying the government is “going through an unprecedented economic crisis and is facing a fiscal deficit.” 

The Supreme Court, in its 13-page landmark ruling, has directed the federal government and caretaker provincial governments to provide the election commission with “all facilities, personnel, and security as it may require for the holding of the general elections.”