Pakistan's election body issues election schedule for February 8 polls on Supreme Court's order
The Hindu
The schedule for Pakistan’s general elections on February 8 has been issued, hours after the Supreme Court quashed a lower court’s decision which could have delayed the much-awaited polls.
The schedule for Pakistan's general elections on February 8 has been issued, hours after the Supreme Court quashed a lower court's decision which could have delayed the much-awaited polls.
The election schedule was issued on Friday night (December 15) by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), within hours after the Supreme Court quashed a decision by the Lahore High Court (LHC) to suspend the appointment of officials from the bureaucracy to oversee the elections in defiance of the apex court's orders.
The LHC's verdict was issued on a petition filed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — the same party that had called for timely polls in a plea filed in the Supreme Court.
Due to the LHC's order, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja met with senior officials on Friday to ensure that everything went according to plan.
Following detailed deliberations, the commission filed a petition in the top court seeking the annulment of the LHC's order. The Supreme Court accepted the plea a few hours back, putting the process back on track.
According to the ECP's notification, the nominations by the candidates can be filed with the Returning Officers (ROs) from December 20-22. The names of the nominated candidates would be published on December 23 and the scrutiny of their documents would be held from December 24-30.
The last date for filing appeals against the RO’s decisions on rejecting or accepting nomination papers will be January 3 and the final date for deciding the appeals of candidates by an appellate tribunal will be January 10.
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