President Dr. Arif Alvi has written a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan to propose a date for the general election.
The president wrote the letter today under Article 224(2) of the Constitution of Pakistan.
This came after the deputy speaker of the National Assembly dismissed the no-trust resolution filed against Prime Minister Imran Khan by the opposition on Sunday.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan is currently hearing a suo motu on these proceedings.
“In order to carry out the mandate of the Constitution of announcing the date of general elections, consultation with the Election Commission is required under Section 57(1) of the Elections Act, 2017,” the letter added.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a media report citing sources said that the ECP was not ready to hold elections in the next three months. According to the report, the administration material including ballot papers was not prepared, while appointment and training of polling staff was to be carried out.
The official stated that according to the law, the ballot papers which are to be used, should have watermarks and they are not available in the country and have to be imported.
Other than these delays, scrutiny of financial and technical quotations was another task that would take months, the news report cited the ECP official as saying.
Moreover, almost two million stamp pads would be required for around 100,000 polling stations, the report added.
Additionally, as per the ECP official, the issue of using electronic voting machines was yet to be sorted out, which was another hindrance to holding elections.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan, released a statement through its official Twitter handle, saying that it had not issued any statement regarding the election.
