Elections in Punjab and KP will take conducted on April 9 according to President Alvi.

ISLAMABAD : Elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will take place on April 9, according to a Monday announcement by President Arif Alvi.

Many people see the day as meaningful since it was exactly one year ago on this day when Imran Khan’s administration was overthrown.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was instructed to release the election schedule in compliance with Section 57 (2) of the Elections Act 2017 in a decision made according to Section 57 (1) of the Act.

The president said in his letter to the chief election commissioner that he had taken an oath under Article 42 read with Schedule 3 of the Constitution to maintain, safeguard, and defend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He said that as no legal body had issued a restraining order, he was free to exercise the powers granted to him by Section 57 (1) of the Elections Act 2017 to “announce the date or dates of the general elections following consultation with the Commission.”

صدر مملکت ڈاکٹر عارف علوی نے پنجاب اور خیبر پختونخواہ میں انتخابات کی تاریخ دے دی

صدر مملکت نے الیکشن ایکٹ 2017 ء کے سیکشن 57 ایک کے تحت 9 اپریل بروز اتوار پنجاب اور خیبر پختونخواہ کی صوبائی اسمبلیوں کیلئے انتخابات کا اعلان کردیاhttps://t.co/Gr3iBpm8L2

— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) February 20, 2023

The president said that in order to avoid violating and breaking the law—namely, the need that elections be held no later than 90 days—he had deemed it essential to carry out his constitutional and statutory responsibility to announce the date of the elections.

According to President Alvi, the governors of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are failing to fulfil their obligations under the Pakistani Constitution to set a date no later than 90 days from the date of the dissolution of the provincial parliament. He continued by saying that the ECP was also failing to carry out its constitutional duty to conduct elections for the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa legislatures.

There is a major risk that constitutional provisions might be broken since “both the constitutional offices are putting the ball in each other’s court,” he said.

The president emphasised that the ECP had previously provided potential election dates in its many discussions with constitutional officials, demonstrating its own obligation to conduct the elections within ninety days. In response, the ECP stated that the commission could not attend a meeting on the subject with the Office of the President. He claimed that he had started a serious consultation process with the ECP under Section 57 (1) of the Elections Act 2017 to announce the date for the elections of the aforementioned assemblies.

He declared that he was declaring the date of April 9, 2023 for the conduct of elections for the provincial assembly of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the exercise of the authority granted to him under Section 57 (1) of the Elections Act 2017.