Pakistan to hold delayed general elections on February 8

Pakistan will hold general elections on February 8, 2023. The date of delayed polls were decided during a meeting between President Arif Alvi and the Elections Commission of Pakistan (ECP) officials. Both held meeting and reached the agreement after the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday. A delegation headed by Pakistan’s chief election commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja met with president in Islamabad. After the meeting, CEC Raja wrote to the president proposing February 11 as the date for Pakistan general elections. “In the meeting, the date for holding the next general elections was discussed,” the statement said, adding that the president also listened to the progress made by the ECP regarding delimitation of constituencies. “After a detailed discussion, the meeting unanimously agreed to hold general elections in the country on February 8, 2024,” the statement further read. Minutes later, the ECP released a statement reiterating that the meeting unanimously decided on holding general elections in Pakistan on February 8. Pakistan is being governed by a caretaker government since parliament was dissolved on August 9. Elections in the country were supposed to have taken place within 90 days of parliament’s dissolution but the ECP said it needed time to redraw constituency boundaries following the latest census. With inputs from agencies