Pakistan will hold the General Elections on February 11 next year, the poll panel told the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday. The statement by the Election Commission of Pakistan has put an end to all the speculations. The poll panel’s counsel told the top court that the process of drawing constituencies will be completed by the end of January, 2024. According to a report by Dawn.com, the ECP had said that there would be no general elections this year as there was an urgent need of new delimitation of the seats.
The Election Commission will be delimiting the seats which has caused delayed in elections as constitutionally elections should be held within 90 days of government dissolution. The elections should have been scheduled in November instead of February as per the Pakistan Constitution.
The statement by Sajeel Swati, the legal representative of the Election Commission of Pakistan, came during the resumption of a hearing at the highest court concerning a collection of petitions advocating for elections to be held within 90 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures.
A three-member bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan and Justice Athar Minallah, considered the petitions presented by various entities, including the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, as reported by the Dawn newspaper.
On August 9, Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi dissolved the National Assembly.