Will SC help ensure timely polls?
Doubts are being expressed regarding holding of elections in accordance with the proposed schedule. First came statements from politicians who thought they were unprepared and feared they could lose if the elections were not delayed. They offered fantastic justifications for the delay. The CM Baluchistan claimed “a majority of the public wants to undertake Hajj for which [many] would be travelling to Saudi Arabia in July.” Interestingly the Hajj is due in August rather than July. KP CM demanded simultaneous elections with FATA, which are due next year. He claims that FATA elections after the new government’s formation would cause discord.
Then came the LHC and BHC decisions. What is upsetting is the timing of the two courts’ verdicts. The Lahore High Court set aside the new nomination forms, approved by parliament through the Elections Act 2017, and ordered their improvement. As former Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has put it the petition in LHC was filed in December of 2017 but the judgment came only when the National Assembly had completed its tenure and was unable to make the required improvements. What is equally worrisome is that the verdict was delivered when the election schedule had already been announced.
The Baluchistan High Court nullified on Friday the delimitation of constituencies announced by the ECP for eight of Quetta’s nine Baluchistan Assembly seats and ordered it to revisit the areas and make fresh delimitation of constituencies. This would be a fairly lengthy exercise as fresh delimitation would require following all stages and their timeline.
There were already fears that judiciary might delay the elections. In March a Pakistan Bar Council executive member wrote a letter to all 22 representatives of the legal fraternity’s apex body calling upon them to pass a strong resolution that they will resist any move by the judiciary to postpone the upcoming general elections.
Statements by the CJ and caretaker PM in unambiguous terms that elections will be held on July 25 without any delay still rouses hopes. Holding elections on time is the joint responsibility of ECP, caretaker PM and the Supreme Court. Many will wait for the SC’s verdict while keeping their fingers crossed.
