LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the maintainability of a petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against appointment of bureaucrats as returning officers (ROs) for the upcoming general elections.

A lawyer for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) told the court that the commission had no option but to appoint the bureaucrats as election officials after the judiciary turned down the request of the commission citing backlog of cases in the district courts. He argued that the ECP was responsible for holding fair and free election; hence a notification for the appointment of ROs and DROs had been issued. He asked the court to dismiss the petition for being not maintainable.

The counsel of PTI argued that the ECP was in the process of appointing election officials including ROs and DROs as presiding officers and polling officers for the conduct of elections. He alleged that the caretaker government in the province, led by Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi, influenced the bureaucracy against the PTI, its leaders, and workers. He said the appointment of election staff from among government officers defeats the whole purpose of creating an independent election commission. He asked the court to declare the appointment of the government officers as returning officers and district returning officers unconstitutional.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023