Set date for polls, Pakistan President tells Election Commission

Supreme Court adjourns hearing on no-trust vote issue

Pakistan President Arif Alvi on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to fix a date for a new national ballot, as the Supreme Court adjourned hearing into the legality of political manoeuvres that led to Parliament being dissolved.

The court — which will sit for a fourth day on Thursday — must rule if the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly violated the Constitution by refusing to allow a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan at the weekend.

Had the vote taken place, Mr. Khan was certain to have been booted from office, but the move allowed him to get the loyalist President to dissolve Parliament and order an election.

The Opposition has cried foul and is refusing to cooperate with forming an interim government to oversee any ballot, but on Wednesday Mr. Alvi upped the ante.

A statement from his office said the Election Commission had been told to propose a date “to carry out the mandate of the Constitution".

While the Opposition applied its resources to the court, Mr. Khan effectively hit the campaign trail — telling party workers in Lahore late Tuesday that he would be more careful in picking candidates to stand for his Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

It is unclear when or how the court will rule on the issue — or if Mr. Khan would even accept its decision — but there is a precedent.