ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled on Friday that general elections in the country would be held on February 8, 2024, in any case.
Hearing a plea filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against Lahore High Court’s order to suspend a notification of the ECP on appointment of bureaucrats as returning officers (ROs) and district returning officers (DROs) for the Pakistan general elections 2024, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that elections would be held on February 8 as announced earlier and bureaucrats would be appointed as ROs and DROs.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa headed the three-member bench, which consisted of Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah. Hearing ECP’s plea, Chief Justice Isa said the Lahore High Court (LHC) judge who suspended the ECP’s decision to appointment bureaucrats as ROs and DROs went beyond his authority. He said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawyer Umair Niazi, who filed a petition in the LHC against the ECP’s decision, must explain that why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against him.