PTI moves PHC for early polls in KP

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) for holding early elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) by revoking the notification pertaining to polls on October 8.

The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan’s registrar returned a similar plea filed by PTI on Monday with some objections. The PTI, instead of approaching the SC, decided to move the PHC again.

The KP Assembly was dissolved in mid-January and a caretaker setup was installed in the province.

The petition, filed by the speaker of the dissolved KP Assembly Mushtaq Ghani in the PHC, challenged the announcement by KP Governor Ghulam Ali on March 24 and notification by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on March 27 on conducting elections for the KP Assembly on October 8.

It maintained the governor violated the Constitution by disobeying the orders of the SC about the schedule for polls of the KP Assembly.

The petitioner requested the court to direct the KP governor and ECP to announce the schedule for early polls and take back the notification for conducting elections on October 8.

The writ petition filed in the PHC through Barrister Gohar stated that elections cannot be delayed due to law and order or financial challenges as in such cases every government will use it as an excuse to delay polls in the future.

The writ stated that the KP governor first proposed May 28 for the polls in the province and later suggested conducting elections on October 8 after which the ECP announced polls in KP on October 8.

The KP governor last month proposed holding polls for the KP Assembly on October 8, stating the present law and order situation was not satisfactory.

The governor wrote a letter to the ECP and mentioned a series of terrorist incidents in the province in the last few weeks to back his point.

He sent a nine-page report to the ECP on the worsening law and order situation in the KP and other challenges for conducting elections and asked to consult all the stakeholders before announcing a date for the polls.