ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday night issued the schedule for general elections on Feb. 8, saying symbols would be allotted to political candidates on Jan. 13.
The schedule comes after Pakistan’s top court on Friday ordered the regulator to issue the general election schedule tonight and suspended a Lahore High Court (LHC) ruling that had stayed the appointment of returning officers (ROs) and district returning officers (DROs) from the bureaucracy.
The developments come a day after the Election Commission paused, following the Lahore High Court verdict, a training session for ROs and DROs, an exercise without which polls scheduled for Feb. 8 could have been delayed. The move had led to widespread media speculation that elections would not be held in time as the election regulator needed to issue the election schedule by Friday night in order for political parties to have a 54-day window for electioneering.
“Do your job,” Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa ordered the ECP on Friday, suspending the Lahore High Court order. “Issue the elections schedule tonight ... We will not allow anybody to derail the democracy.”
Hours later, the ECP released the election schedule for Feb. 8.
“[ECP] hereby calls upon the election of the National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies of the Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to elect their representatives from each of the constituencies to the General Seats,” said a notification from the ECP, which also provided dates for various election activities:
In the evening, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja held a detailed meeting with the chief justice and other judges of the Supreme Court to reportedly discuss the Lahore High Court directive and ensuing situation. Later, the ECP filed a petition in the top court seeking an annulment of the Lahore High Court’s judgment.
The court also issued a contempt notice to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Barrister Umair Khan Niazi who had filed a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking the appointment of returning officers from the judiciary. The ECP has appointed over one thousand returning officers across the country to conduct the national polls. Their job is to ensure that the election process is administered effectively to ensure free and fair elections.
The top court later stopped the Lahore High Court from further hearings on the plea, saying it had passed the judgment in ‘undue haste,’ and adjourned the hearing for an indefinite time.
Speaking to a local media channel, Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan said he had never said elections would be delayed.
“It is better to do the confirmation prior to the dissemination of the news,” he added. “We have prepared the election schedule.”
A caretaker government under interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar is running the country until the national election is held and a winning party can secure a parliamentary majority and select a new prime minister.
As it stands, questions surround the legitimacy of the election, whenever it is held, as former prime minister Imran Khan, the main opposition leader and arguably the country’s most popular politician, cannot fight this election.
Khan is currently jailed for three years after being convicted on graft charges and is barred from contesting any elections for five years.
His party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), won the last general election in 2018, and he became prime minister until his ouster in a no-confidence vote in parliament in 2022.
