PTI Urges Supreme Court for Elections within 90 Days of NA Dissolution

The Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) has taken a significant step by approaching the Supreme Court (SC) to advocate for general elections within 90 days of the National Assembly’s dissolution, as per The News. PTI’s Secretary General, Omar Ayyub, has filed a petition under Article 184(3), urging the SC to instruct President Arif Alvi to announce the election date and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to promptly issue an election schedule. The petition also challenges the legality of the decision made by the Council of Common Interest (CCI) on August 5, 2023, regarding the census, aiming to declare it void ab initio.
Furthermore, the petition seeks to nullify the notification from the Bureau of Statistics dated August 8, 2023, and the delimitation exercise proposed by the ECP on August 17, 2023.
The PTI’s plea also questions the constitutionality of Section 57(1) of the Election Act, 2017, and invokes various articles of the Constitution to support its argument. The PTI has included the ECP, the federation, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the Council of Common Interest (CCI), and chief secretaries of different provinces as respondents in the petition. Additionally, the PTI is urging the apex court to ensure timely elections in Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, and align the elections in Punjab and KPK with the court’s judgments. The PTI contends that the census is being used as a pretext to delay National Assembly elections, highlighting the ECP’s response dated August 24, 2023, to the president’s letter dated August 23, 2023.