LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday suspended a notification of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for holding general elections in Punjab through the executive.

The court announced its reserved verdict and declared maintainable for hearing a petition of the PTI challenging the appointment of District Returning Officers (DROs) and Returning Officers (ROs) from the bureaucracy for the next general polls.

The court observed in its verdict that it was the duty of the ECP to conduct free and fair elections. The court said, “If the major political parties did not accept the election results, the nation’s money would be wasted”.

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The court therefore issued notices and sought replies from the ECP and other respondents till next hearing and referred the petition to the Chief Justice for its disposal by some larger bench. The petitioner’s counsel submitting his arguments said that the ECP was in the process of appointing election officials including Returning Officer (ROs), District Returning Officer (DROs), presiding officers, and polling officers responsible for the conduct of the elections.

He alleged that the caretaker government in the province, led by Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi, influenced the bureaucracy against the PTI. He said the appointment of the election staff from among government officers would defeat the purpose of holding independent election. He urged the court to declare the appointment of the government officers as ROs and DROs unconstitutional.

He also asked the court to order the ECP to initiate the process of consultation with the LHC chief justice for the appointment of judicial officers as the returning officers for the next general elections.

A lawyer for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) replying to the submission of the petitioner’s counsel said the judiciary had been requested to dispense the services of its judicial officers for the appointments as returning officers.

However, he said, the judiciary turned down the request of the commission citing backlog of cases in the district courts. He said the commission had no option but to appoint the election officials from the government departments. He asked the court to dismiss the petition for being not maintainable.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023