ISLAMABAD: A request by the defence ministry to hold general elections simultaneously across Pakistan, upon the completion of the terms of the national, Sindh, and Balochistan parliaments in October, will shortly be heard by the Supreme Court.
A three-judge bench — comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz ul-Ahsan, and Justice Munib Akhtar — is expected to consider the petition.
On Tuesday, the defense ministry, headed by Khawaja Asif of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), filed an application in the Supreme Court, requesting it to retract its April 4 order that had set May 14 as the election date for the parliament of Punjab.
The application seeks directives from the apex judicial forum to hold general elections for all national and provincial legislatures on the same date.
In addition to the application, the defense ministry has also submitted a report in court. This report was laid before the Supreme Court in compliance with its directives to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and other departments to furnish reports after releasing Rs21 billion to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for conducting elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The report highlights the “necessity” of holding the elections on the same day in light of the “heightened security situation” in the country. It also says the military will be ready to perform election duties by early October, without offering an explanation as to why the world’s sixth-largest army by active personnel is unable to perform its job when required.
“Due to the prevalent security situation and counter-terrorism operations being carried out in KP and Balochistan as well as the intelligence-based operations in Punjab and Sindh, the armed forces, Rangers, Frontier Constabulary and other forces are not logistically available to be repositioned and re-posted for providing election security, twice in a span of six months,” the report claimed.
“Significant time is required to prepare the members of the armed forces for the election duty, given much of the force has been actively engaged in operations for a considerable period of time,” the application said, observing the security situation in Punjab and Sindh has been stable in the light of the efforts of the ongoing operations in KP and Balochistan, respectively.
Therefore, any diversion of troops from KP and Balochistan will result in directly influencing the security situation in Punjab and Sindh, the report said.
More details to follow