Pakistan: ECP stops 3-day session to train returning officers after LHC ruling
Dec 15, 2023
Islamabad [Pakistan], December 15 : The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday stopped a three-day session to train returning officers (ROs), only a day after its commencement, Pakistan based Dawn newspaper reported. This puts a question mark over Pakistan's ability to hold the national elections in February.
This comes after a Lahore High Court order suspended a notification by the election watchdog regarding the appointment of ROs and district returning officers (DROs) from the bureaucracy.
As per Dawn, the high court order, which came in response to a petition submitted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has brought the electoral process to a standstill, causing widespread concern among political parties -- including the petitioner PTI -- regarding general elections which are slated for February 8 next year.
The PTI in its petition, contested the appointments of bureaucrats to act as DROs and ROs for the upcoming general elections and sought the appointment of officials from the lower judiciary for the poll exercise.
The watchdog was expected to announce the election schedule within this week, but now it seems to be in limbo.
An ECP official said the announcement of the schedule depended on the final verdict in the case related to the appointment of DROs and ROs, as per Dawn.
The ECP official said: "The ROs are the ones who issue public notices inviting nominations and also receive and scrutinise nomination papers. An election schedule cannot be issued in the absence of ROs," he said. "In fact, it is the job of the ROs to implement the schedule."
The official said the appointment of ROs was made as per the law, as he expressed surprise over the court ruling, which came late on Wednesday night.
He said another hurdle was the delimitation cases being remanded to the election watchdog by the high courts for reconsideration. The official claimed that the judiciary, not the ECP, would be responsible in case elections were delayed.
The official, however, said that intervention from the Supreme Court could dissipate the uncertainty surrounding elections in the wake of these recent developments, but an ECP spokesperson rejected reports that it planned to approach the Supreme Court against the LHC order.
