ISLAMABAD: The three-member Supreme Court (SC) bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar has started hearing the defence ministry’s plea to hold general elections across Pakistan on the same day upon completion of the terms of national as well as Sindh and Balochistan assemblies.
The proceedings, which were scheduled to start at 11:30 am started after 2 pm. The defence ministry had on Tuesday requested the apex court to recall its April 4 order that fixed May 14 as the date of the polls for the Punjab Assembly.
The application was filed along with a report, laid before the top court in compliance with its orders to the State Bank of Pakistan and other government departments to furnish reports after releasing Rs21 billion to the Election Commission of Pakistan for holding general elections to the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies.
The three-member bench went through these reports in chambers on Wednesday (today) and later the matter was fixed to be heard in the open court. The defence ministry, in its application, had requested the Supreme Court to issue an order that general elections to the national and all four provincial assemblies be held on the same day upon completion of the terms of the national as well as Balochistan and Sindh assemblies.
The report contained, for the most part, the same contentions which the director general of military operations, head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, and the defence secretary submitted to the chief justice and two other judges during an over two-hour in-chamber briefing on Monday, as well as the in-camera briefing given to the parliament in the day.
The report highlighted the need to hold polls on the same day in view of the security situation in the country, saying that the armed forces would be able to carry out election duties by early October. “Due to the prevalent security situation and counter-terrorism operations being carried out in KP and Balochistan as well as the intelligence-based operations in Punjab and Sindh, the armed forces, Rangers, Frontier Constabulary and other forces are not logistically available to be repositioned and re-posted for providing election security, twice in a span of six months,” said the report.
“Significant time is required to prepare the members of the armed forces for the election duty, given much of the force has been actively engaged in operations for a considerable period of time,” the application said, adding the security situation in Sindh and Punjab has been stable in the light of the efforts of the ongoing operations in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Therefore, any diversion of troops from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan will directly affect the security situation in Sindh and Punjab, the application explained.
In its report, the ECP informed the top court on Tuesday that the staggering of elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab was not feasible since it involves significant expenditures compared to holding elections on the same day. The incidents of influencing results through rigging in the next phase of elections may also increase, the Election Commission feared, adding that the staggering of elections also increases the risk of violence as miscreants might have more chances to plan and commit attacks, rather than a one-day limited window of opportunity.
The Election Commission noted that in case the Supreme Court directs holding of staggered elections, the conduct of the election would be possible in six phases as the re-alignment of forces from one location to the other for the next phase of the polls will take approximately one month with additional burden on the national exchequer. This staggered election will go beyond even October 8, 2023 — a date earlier fixed by the Election Commission of Pakistan as poll date because of six phases, the report said.
On the other hand, the finance ministry said that in the wake of the rejection on part of the National Assembly to a government-sponsored motion to grant Rs21b to the federal government for meeting expenditures, other than charged, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, in respect of the ECP for holding the elections in Punjab and KP, it was difficult to sanction releasing the funds.
