President Alvi’s proposal: Chief Election Commissioner calls a consultative meeting, sources
On the proposal of the date of the general elections by President Dr. Arif Alvi, the Chief Election Commissioner convened an important consultative meeting of the Election Commission, sources claimed on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, President Dr. Arif Alvi proposed November 6 as the date for elections in a letter written to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja.
According to Election Commission sources, the Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja has not decided the time of the meeting yet, the President’s letter will be reviewed in the meeting.
In the meeting, the legal team of the Election Commission will give a briefing, and the legal experts will share their opinions.
The other four members and the relevant wings will also participate in the ECP meeting.
In the letter, the president said the National Assembly was dissolved on August 9 on the advice of then prime minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The president of Pakistan citing Article 48(5) of the Constitution, said, “empowers and mandates the president ‘to appoint a date not later than 90 days from the date of the dissolution, for the holding of a general election to the Assembly’”.
Therefore, “in terms of Article 48(5), the general election to the National Assembly should be held by the 89th day of the date of dissolution of the National Assembly, i.e. Monday, 6th day of November 2023”, the letter added.
“In an endeavor to fulfill the constitutional obligations, the Chief Election Commissioner was invited for a meeting to devise the modalities of implementing the Constitutional intent and mandate who in reply took a contrary view that as per the scheme of the Constitution and framework of electoral laws, it was the domain of the Election Commission, and following the publication of last preceding census on 07.08.2023, duly notified delimitation of constituencies was in progress, a mandatory requirement stipulated by Article 51(5) of the Constitution and section 17 of the Elections Act, 2017,” President Alvi said in the letter.
