Islamabad, Pakistan: The institutional response of the Supreme Court defused another attempt to create confusion in the country, and on the chilly Islamabad night of Friday, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to issue the schedule of the general elections before midnight that was announced thereafter.
The ECP earlier Friday evening challenged the LHC verdict, of stopping bureaucracy from overseeing upcoming General Elections scheduled for February 8 and this verdict could postpone the election schedule. Justice Ali Baqar Najafi of Lahore High Court ruled in favor of a petition filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) challenging the appointment of district returning officers (DROs), ROs, and assistant returning officers (AROs) from the bureaucracy for the polls.
A three-judge bench, led by CJP Qazi Faez Isa, was subsequently constituted and heard the petition filed by ECP and termed the LHC’s order as “irresponsible” which was delivered in haste. It directed the high court not to proceed further on the petition of PTI.
The court directed ECP to issue its schedule for general elections before midnight which was consequently released fixing February 8, 2024, as the General Election date.
This is the second move of the Supreme Court to mitigate confusion created by PTI in the country within the last three days. On December 13, 2023, the Supreme Court suspended its earlier verdict that declared the trial of civilians in military courts null and void, and after this verdict trials of civilians in Military Court were halted since October 2023. However, the new bench allowed the military courts to proceed with the trials but said their final decisions would be conditional on the Supreme Court verdict. The larger bench also issued notices to the parties in the intra-court appeals and adjourned the proceedings till the third week of January. The intra-court appeals were filed by the federal and provincial governments, as well as the Defence Ministry. The federal government also sought a stay on the court verdict as well as appealed to declare the decision null and void. Defence Ministry pleaded that the acts of terrorism had increased in the country since SC stopped Military Courts for the trial of civilians because terrorists and their abettors felt confident that they would get out of jails under a civilian court trial structure. On December 12, 2023, at least 23 soldiers were martyred when terrorists rammed an explosive-laden truck into a security forces post in Dera Ismail Khan district. This was the second lethal attack on forces during the next 40 days as on November 3, 2023, 14 soldiers were martyred in Gwadar district while on November 3, M.M. Alam PAF Training Base Mianwali was also attacked by terrorists but they were neutralized without any causalities from the forces side.
Pakistan Army has been fighting for the security of the country and nation against terrorism for two decades. In Balochistan, the enemy was attacking in the guise of separatists. In Sindh, extortion and target killings were the norm. At the same time, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab were the special targets of terrorists, in which suicide bombings were on the rise in addition to targeting innocent people in the name of sectarianism
It may be remembered that the eleven-member bench of the Supreme Court in 2015 validated the trial of the civilian in the military court. After that, in 2016 and 2017, the Supreme Court approved the trial of civilians in military courts under the Military Act, then suddenly what happened? Efforts are being made to make military courts ineffective by declaring them illegal.
Including the United States, Argentina, Turkey, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Iran, India, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Bangladesh, there are dozens of countries where cases against attackers on military installations are heard. It is done in military courts. None of these countries have any threat from their neighbors as Pakistan has always from India and Afghanistan.
After the verdict of the SC, Military court trials of civilians started, and after the SC decided to hold General Elections on February 8.
Election Schedule 2024 is as follows:
Nomination papers’ submission between December 20 to 22.
Scrutiny of nomination papers of candidates— December 24 to December 30
List of candidates released on January 1
Appeals regarding the acceptance or rejection of nomination papers–January 3, 2024.
Final date of decision by the Appellate Authority on appeals–10, 2024
Publication of revised list of candidates–January 11, 2024.
Withdrawal of nomination papers–January 12, 2024
Allocation of election symbols to candidates on January 13, 2024.
Polling Date—February 8, 2024
