ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Friday (Apr 5) at 11:30 am will resume hearing of the petitions for holding elections the same-day across the country.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar on April 27 had heard the petition of Sardar Kashif Khan and others.

The court had appreciated the efforts of all parties to try and end the current political impasse and in particular their voluntary agreement to enter into negotiations to choose a single date for holding general elections to the National Assembly and all the four provincial assemblies.

The court in its order, released on Thursday, said; “made it clear that the talks and negotiations between the two sides were entirely to be their own effort, without any direction or order of the Court in this regard.” It also said; “the order of April 4 remained unchanged.”

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) team comprising Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Vice President Fawad Chaudhry, and Senator and Barrister Syed Ali Zafar that held meeting with the committee of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance, in a statement, submitted in the Supreme Court, maintained that from the beginning it had been the stance of their party that the elections to the Assemblies (Punjab and KP) have to be held within 90 days and that the Supreme Court of Pakistan has already fixed 14-05-23 for holding elections to the Punjab Assembly.

The PTI team informed that they gave a proposal to the PDM/alliance that the PTI is willing to hold the elections to the National Assembly and all provincial assemblies on the same date subject to and conditional upon;i. National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan be dissolved on or before 14th May, 2023;ii. The elections to the National Assembly as well as to the Provincial Assemblies of Sindh, Punjab, KPK and Balochistan be held together within 60 days of the dissolution of the National and Provincial Assemblies i.e. in the second week of July, 2023;iii. In order to give a Constitutional cover to the holding of the elections to the Provincial Assemblies of Punjab and KPK beyond the period of 90 days, the members of the National Assembly belonging to PTI will rejoin the National Assembly and a one-time constitutional amendment validating the delay in elections beyond the period of 90 days for Punjab and KPK Assemblies shall be carried out by mutual consent of the political parties; However, the PDM/alliance did not agree with this proposal.

Instead, they have proposed that the dissolution of the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan shall take place on the 30th July 2023 and elections be held in 90 days, thereafter, ie, the first week of October 2023 for the National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, KPK and Balochistan together.

There is also a lack of consensus between the parties in relation to the process for the implementation of the agreement namely through the constitutional amendment.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023