ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's chief election commissioner said on Thursday President Dr Arif Alvi was not authorized to fix the date for upcoming polls following amendments to the country's electoral laws, deepening the political crisis in the South Asian nation where polls due in November are already widely expected to be delayed.

The development comes a day after Alvi wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, inviting him to a meeting to fix an "appropriate" date for the upcoming elections in Pakistan. Alvi stated in the letter that as per Pakistan's constitution, he was obligated to fix a date for polls within 90 days of the date of the dissolution of the National Assembly.

However, a delay in elections beyond the 90-day constitutional limit is almost inevitable as the outgoing government of former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif approved the results of a new population census days before it dissolved the assemblies on Aug. 9 and handed over power to a caretaker administration. The ECP is now bound to redraw hundreds of provincial and federal constituencies on the basis of the latest census results, an exercise the commission says will be finalized by December 14, effectively delaying elections beyond the 90-day limit.

In June, Sharif's government also approved amendments to the Election Act 2017, granting the ECP the power to announce the date for elections unilaterally.

Before the amendment in Section 57(1) of the Elections Act 2017, the president was required to consult the election commission before determining a date for polls. However, after the amendment, the commission has been empowered to announce the date unilaterally.

Responding to Alvi's letter, the chief election commissioner said the ECP "understands and believes that power to appoint a date or dates for elections rests with the commission.”

Raja said redrawing federal and provincial constituencies after the approval of the latest population census was among the “foundational legal steps” toward holding polls, which the ECP had initiated as per the Elections Act 2017 “to protect the fundamental rights of contesting candidates, political parties, and electorates” as guaranteed by Pakistan's constitution.

“The election commission is taking its responsibility of holding the general election very seriously and has also initiated the process of inviting major political parties to give their views on the electoral roadmap,” it said.

“The commission is of the considered view that participation in the meeting [called by the president] would be of scant consequence,” Raja concluded.

The election commission has invited major political parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), for consultations on the fresh delimitation of constituencies and upcoming polls.

The parties have set up their own committees to meet election commission officials to give input.

Legal experts say there were loopholes in the laws that have opened room for disagreement between the president and the election regulator over who had the authority to fix the date for polls.  

“It was mala fide on the part of the outgoing Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government to get controversial amendments passed in the Elections Act to empower the election commission for fixing the date for polls,” Justice (retired) Nasira Iqbal, a prominent legal expert, told Arab News.

“The purpose is to delay elections beyond the 90-day constitutional limit either on one pretext or the other, so the election commission is doing it,” she said, adding that the Supreme Court should intervene to settle the matter.  

Hafiz Hamdullah, a spokesperson for the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of political parties that formed the previous government, said it was the parliament's right to legislate on crucial issues, such as empowering the election commission to hold free and fair elections. 

"The coalition government amended the Elections Act to make the election commission an effective and powerful institution," Hamdullah told Arab News. "Now the election commission is legally empowered to fix the election date without consulting the president."

Advocate Ali Hussain Bhatti said while it was the ECP's right to decide on a date for elections, the regulator should not delay national polls beyond the 90-day constitutional limit.

“This matter will ultimately land in the Supreme Court,” he said, “for a direction on powers and authority of the president and the election commission to fix the date for polls.”