PRESIDENT Dr Arif Alvi did well by seeking legal opinion from the Ministry of Law and Justice on the reply he got from the Election Commission of Pakistans (ECP) on the question of who can announce the date for the general election – the President or the ECP. The Ministry, after thorough deliberations, has opined that the Election Commission is the competent authority to announce or appoint a date for holding and conducting general elections for national and provincial assemblies.
The President made his mind known when he invited the Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja to the Presidency for consultations on the issue of fixing a date for the polls but the Commission informed the head of the state that he was no longer empowered to fix the date for polls after amendments in election laws. The proposed meeting could not take place as the CEC believed such a meeting would be of ‘scant consequence’. Instead of proceeding unilaterally, which could have complicated the matter further, the President thought it appropriate to get legal input from the Law Ministry. The Ministry , in its response, explained that Article 48(5) empowers the President to appoint a date for holding general elections to the National Assembly only in the case where the lower house has been dissolved by the head of state by “invoking Article 58(2) of the Constitution of Pakistan”. The letter also clarified that if for the sake of argument the contention of the President is accepted, then he would be competent to fix a date for election of the National Assembly and not the provincial assemblies, which would defeat the objective of holding elections simultaneously. This argument is valid as transparency and fairness of the elections would be compromised if the President and Governors opt to hold elections of the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies on different dates. We hope this interpretation would be accepted by all and no attempt would be made to create more confusion on the issue especially when the ECP is in the process of consultations with the political parties before announcing a firm schedule for general elections. The Commission has committed to hold elections in February next year and it should be allowed to focus attention on other election-related matters.
