Pakistan Peoples Party demands election 'within 90 days' as ECP plans it for February 2024

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has demanded that the general elections must be held within the next 90 days or the country will fall into a constitutional crisis. If the polls exceed the three-month period, said the PPP, there will be inevitable political and constitutional turmoil, coupled with economic woes, the party said at the meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC), according to Islamabad-based news agency Geo News.

The Election Commission of Pakistan's delimitation is expected to take an estimated four months, which implies that the country cannot hold polls in the next three months or anytime soon. The ECP, however, said that it will work on delimiting constituencies and updating the electoral rolls simultaneously in order to cut short the delay. The election body gave assurances to the PML-N delegation, which held a consultative meeting with the ECP.

The officials discussed the roadmap for the upcoming polls and a contingency plan. Senator Sherry Rehman, PPP Vice President labelled the 2023 census as 'controversial.' She went on to claim that the elections will not be delayed due to fresh delimitations. According to Rehman, all the CEC members believed that the polls would be held sooner, and that "there is no room for delayed polls." She went on to add that the PPP will conduct a meeting with the ECP to break the stalemate.

The PPP is making demands to organise the polls "within 90 days," party's Vice President Rehman stressed. PPP Secretary General Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, former Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Shazia Mari and Faisal Karim Kundi also held a press briefing to detail the deliberations that took place during the CEC meeting in Bilawal House. Rehman informed that the meeting of the CEC under the joint chair of Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari is still going on, with a focus on other key issues such as the worsening economic crisis, poverty, hike in the petrol and electricity tariff, and unprecedented inflation rate.

"There were no changes in the (National Assembly) seats, hence, the elections should not be delayed," said PPP Vice President Senator Sherry Rehman. 

"Caretaker government is not authorised to make changes to the Constitution and changing the law is not the interim set-up's mandate," she added. 

Next general elections in February 2024?  

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has said that the next general elections will most likely be held in February 2024 as the body is working on delimiting constituencies, electoral rolls, and other preparatory work that will result in the minimum time possible for the general election, Islamabad based newspaper Dawn reported. But even as the polls are conducted in February, they would be in violation of the Constitution of Pakistan. The elections must ideally be held within 90 days after the dissolution of assemblies, according to Sherry Rehman. 

“A delegation of the party will go to the Election Commission on August 29 and place the party’s position before the Election Commission. The future course of action will be made in the light of the reply received from the Chief Election Commissioner,” she said, according to the paper. The PPP is arguing that the general elections cannot be delayed on the basis of the delimitation of constituencies. ECP, in its response.said that there are rumours that the election body will commence the process to update electoral rolls only after the delimitation process that will conclude in December, which is untrue. It s clearly written in the constitution of Pakistan that elections shall be held in 90 days, said former Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. “Our aim was that the elections should be held on time, so we approved the census (in CCI),” the latter stated.