Sheikh Rashid asks President Alvi to announce poll date or resign

LAHORE: Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid has asked President Arif Alvi to announce an election date on Monday or resign.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, he said that President Alvi should announce a date for holding general elections for the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, which were dissolved last month.

He said that as neither the Election Commission of Pakistan nor the governors of the respective provinces were giving a date for the polls, for one excuse or another, the president, who is the authority to appoint the governors, should use his powers and himself announce a date for the election.

The Constitution says that in the event of the dissolution of a provincial assembly before the expiry of its five-year constitutional term, the governor will give a date for holding a general election for the house.

But Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman has taken the plea that as he did not sign the chief minister’s advice for the dissolution of the house, he was not part of the procedure and could not give a date for an election.

The Election Commission of Pakistan says in such a case where the governor refuses to give the polling date, the Constitution does not authorize it to announce a date on its own.

Mr Rashid claimed that polls for national and provincial assemblies would be held on the same date, but would not clarify how the federal government and two other provinces —Sindh and Balochistan— could be constitutionally forced to prematurely dissolve their respective houses in order to hold the polls on the date when the polls would be held for the Punjab and KP assemblies.

He pinned his hopes on the judiciary in this respect, saying that the country could be saved (by holding fresh polls) by the Supreme Court.

About his likely court arrest in the Jail Bharo Tehreek of the PTI starting this Wednesday, he said that if PTI chairman Imran Khan directed so, he would court arrest on the very first day of the movement, Feb 22.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2023

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