If governor refuses, president can announce date for elections, PTI’s lawyer tells LHC

Governor says not responsible for announcing date since he didn’t dissolve assembly.

 

LAHORE    -     Punjab Governor Mu­hammad Balighur Reh­man on Thursday in­formed the Lahore High Court (LHC) that he was not obligated in any manner to announce the date for the elec­tions in the province, as he had not dissolved the assembly while act­ing on the advice of the chief minister Punjab.

It was stated in a re­ply, filed on behalf of the governor before Jus­tice Jawad Hassan, who was hearing a petition filed by a citizen Munir Ahmand, seeking direc­tions for announcement of a date for holding elections in the prov­ince. The court also heard the civil miscella­neous application of Pa­kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), filed in an identi­cal pending petition.

In his reply, the gov­ernor further submit­ted that as per Article 105 of the Constitution, he was responsible for announcing the date of elections in the prov­ince if he dissolved the assembly, but not oth­erwise, where assem­bly stands dissolved on the force of self-execu­tory provision of Article 112. The governor also said that he did not cause any obstruction in the per­formance of the commission and re­quested the court to dismiss the peti­tion with fine as the petitioner was not an aggrieved person. During the pro­ceedings, the court observed that it was written [in the Constitution] that the elections should be held within 90 days, adding that it would review what would be the method for giving the date of elections. To which, PTI’s counsel Barrister Ali Zafar suggest­ed that the court should ask the Elec­tion Commission when it would hold elections. However, the Commission’s counsel sought time for filing a re­ply, adding that he was entrusted with the matter a day earlier and time was required for preparation. The coun­sel further maintained that it was the power of the governor to give a date for elections, adding that the commis­sion was responsible for giving a date of the by-polls only. Barrister Ali Zaf­ar suggested that the president could announce a date for the election, if the governor and the commission could not give a date. At this stage, a feder­al law officer raised a question, asking what would happen if a date was an­nounced for the election but the com­mission failed to hold elections on the given date. He requested the court to form a larger bench for hearing the matter. Barrister Ali Zafar opposed the request for formation of a larger bench and submitted that if the governor was not announcing a date for the elections, then the commission could do it. The election commission had also written a letter to the governor in this regard, he added. Barrister Ali further submit­ted that everyone was stating that the elections would be held in 90 days, but no one was giving a date for it. “If the governor did not announce a date, then the election commission would do so. If the election commission also did not announce a date, then the presi­dent would announce a date for hold­ing elections,” he added.