PPP openly opposes delay of over 90 days in elections

Karachi: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) openly opposed the delay of more than 90 days in the elections.

According to details, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) while announcing the schedule of constituencies said that general elections cannot be held in 90 days.

The Election Commission decided to delimit the constituencies based on the new census across the country and allotted four months’ time for the delimitations.

According to ECP, the final publication of constituencies will be done on December 14 across the country from September 08 to October 07.

The suggestions will be given regarding constituencies from October to November 08. From September 05 to 07, the quota of constituencies of national and provincial assemblies will be allocated.

Administrative matters related to constituencies will be completed by August 31.

However, People's Party has openly opposed the delay of more than 90 days in the elections.

Information Secretary of PPP Faisal Karim Kundi said: “If there are appeals against them after the constituencies, they will remain in the same cycles for one and a half years, therefore the elections should be held within 90 days”.

Faisal Karim while talking to private news channel stated that 90 days is mentioned in the constitution, constituencies are not mentioned. The seats of the assemblies are not being increased, the boundaries of these constituencies should be reduced. If more is to be done, this work should be done within two months.

The politician added that he will call a meeting of Peoples Party and decide whether to go to the Supreme Court against the delay in the election or not.

It should be noted that the former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had signed the summary of dissolution of the National Assembly on August 12 and sent it to the President for approval.

The President dissolved the National Assembly under Article 58 (1) on August 09 following the advice of Prime Minister.

When the Assembly is dissolved, the Election Commission has to announce the date of the elections under Article 224 One. According to the Constitution, if the Assembly is dissolved before the expiry of the period, the general elections must be held within 90 days.

However, if there is a new census, then the Constitution Under sub-section 5 of Article 15(1), the Election Commission of Pakistan is legally bound to conduct redistricting.