Election body stresses intra-party polls
Staff Reporter Islamabad
The Supreme Court has fixed a petition challenging the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja for hearing.
Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed constituted a three-member bench comprising Justice Umar Atta Bandial, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar to hear the case on Monday (Sept 13).
The bench will hear an appeal against objections raised by the apex court’s registrar to the petition.
Advocate Ali Azeem Afridi moved the petition against the appointment of the current CEC, Sikander Sultan Raja. He approached the top court after the Peshawar High Court dismissed his similar petition last year in September.
He assailed a constitutional amendment that allowed the appointment of a retired senior civil servant or a technocrat as the chief election commissioner of Pakistan. He requested the court to declare the incumbent CEC’s appointment unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan directed the political parties to hold timely intra-party elections on Saturday.
The ECP in a letter to the heads of all political parties, observed that the political parties usually failing to hold their intra-party elections within scheduled time.
All the parties are responsible to hold the polls within party in a given time according to Section 208 of the Election Act 2017.
“Failure in holding the party election is violation of the law and the constitution of the party,” the letter read. “As the scheduled time passes, the political parties used to seek extended time from the election commission for holding elections,” according to the letter.
“Political parties should ensure intra-party polls within scheduled time,” the letter read.
“Political parties are bound to hold elections in party within a period not exceeding five years,” the ECP stressed in its letter to the parties.
