By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will hold delayed national elections on Feb. 8 next year, the election commission and the president’s office said on Thursday, ending months of uncertainty and speculation over the timing of the polls.
The decision came after a meeting between the election commission and President Arif Alvi, as required by the constitution, following a directive from the Supreme Court earlier in the day.
The Supreme Court ordered the commission and the president to agree on a date before the next hearing on Friday. The court was hearing petitions from various political parties and civil society groups, who had challenged the delay in announcing the election date.
Polls were supposed to have taken place within 90 days of parliament’s dissolution but the election commission said it needed time to redraw constituency boundaries following the latest census.
The commission said it would finish the delimitation process by Nov. 30 and make all necessary arrangements by Jan. 29.
“Respected Election Commission members held a meeting with the President of Pakistan under the leadership of Chief Election Commissioner Mr. Sikandar Sultan Raja at the Presidency today to discuss the election date,” a brief election commission statement said. “It was unanimously decided that elections will be held on Thursday, February 8, 2024.”
According to a statement released by the president’s office, officials of the election regulatory body briefed Alvi over progress related to the delimitation of national and provincial assembly constituencies on the basis of the latest digital census done earlier this year.
Pakistan is currently being run by a caretaker government under interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar that is meant to oversee a general election.
The country has struggled through months of political chaos, with former prime minister Imran Khan — still wildly popular — barred from contesting elections and locked up in custody.
The former international cricket star, convicted of graft but being held ahead of a trial for leaking state secrets, waged a campaign of defiance against the powerful military after being ousted from power last year. It was met with a widespread crackdown of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Behind any election in Pakistan lurks the military, which has staged at least three successful coups since the country was forged from the partition of India in 1947.
With Khan out of favour with the establishment, three time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned from self-imposed exile last month to lead his Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) to polls.
He left the country four years ago to seek medical treatment in Britain, part way through a jail sentence for graft, for which he has been granted bail since returning.
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