Pakistan general election: Schedule to be announced 56 days before polling date, says ECP

The much-awaited timeline for the upcoming general election will be announced 56 days ahead of the planned polling day on February 8, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said. All necessary preparations for conducting free and fair elections have been completed, including addressing representations against delimitation and timely publication of the final list of constituency delimitation, the Down quoted a senior official of the ECP as saying. Additionally, the official noted that the chief justices of the Sindh, Lahore, and Peshawar High Courts have already declined the appointment of judicial officers as district returning officers (DROs) and returning officers (ROs). However, a response from the Balochistan High Court is still pending. The official also said that the appointment of DROs and ROs is expected soon, with district administration officers likely to take up the duties. The electoral body has scheduled a meeting next week to review preparations for polling and the status of implementing decisions made at the previous meeting, the official added, according to Dawn. In a related development, an ECP spokesperson said that Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja has invited the MQM-P for a meeting on Monday (December 4) to discuss and address the party’s apprehensions. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has criticised PTI leader Babar Awan’s statements regarding an alleged decrease in National Assembly seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, dismissing it as an effort to sow confusion. The spokesperson clarified that the 25th Constitutional Amendment in 2018 resulted in the elimination of 12 National Assembly seats in FATA following its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Contrary to Awan’s claims, the National Assembly seats for the province were increased from 39 to 45. Similarly, the spokesperson explained that in the Provincial Assembly of KP, the general seats have been augmented from 99 to 115. He deemed the lawyer’s assertion challenging the ECP’s authority to reduce KP’s seats as ridiculous.“As a lawyer, Babar Awan should not do anything outside the Constitution and the law. It is the prerogative of parliament to determine the seats of national and provincial assemblies, and according to the constitutionally allotted seats, the Election Commission has divided the constituencies,” he maintained, Dawn reported.