ISLAMABAD: Following the continuous appeals to announce the date for general elections in Pakistan, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) finally announced on Thursday that general elections will be held on February 11 next year.
The date of the elections was shared with the Supreme Court today by the lawyer for the country’s poll body during the hearing of petitions calling for timely elections across the country, reported Geo News.
The electoral body’s counsel, Sajeel Swati, said the process of drawing constituencies would be completed by January 29 paving the way for polls. He made this revelation as the apex court resumed hearing a set of petitions calling for holding elections within 90 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures, Dawn reported.
“Elections in the country will be held in the country (after) completion of delimitation on November 30,” ECP’s lawyer told the three-member bench.
Moreover, this was the second hearing the three-member bench was holding on the petitions, according to Geo News. The bench consisted of Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan.
Pakistan has been dealing with political uncertainty since Imran Khan’s government was removed through a no-confidence motion in April 2022.
Following that, the Shehbaz Sharif-led government dissolved the National Assembly on August 9, while Sindh and Balochistan assemblies were also prematurely dissolved to allow the electoral authority to hold elections in the country within 90 days, Geo News reported.
However, the ECP decided against holding polls within the desired time as the Council of Common Interest (CCI), days before the dissolution of the assemblies, approved the 7th Population and Housing Census 2023.
The CCI approval made it mandatory for the commission to hold elections following fresh delimitations, reported Geo News.
Following this, the ECP on August 17 announced the schedule of new delimitations to be carried out as per the new census approved by the CCI.
However, it further announced that the general elections in the country would be held in the last week of January 2024. (ANI)