ECP mulls over KP, Punjab election issues

Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja presided over a meeting to take up the matter related to KP and Punjab elections, 24NewsHD TV channel reported on Friday.

According to a statement, constitutional and legal aspects of a letter from President Arif Alvi, powers of the governor and responsibilities of the election commission, and the interior minister’s circular in connection with law and order.

In his letter to CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja a couple of days ago,  the president said that the election of an assembly is to be held within 90 days of the dissolution as provided by Article 224(2) of the Constitution.

The conduct and holding of elections was the primary and essential duty of the ECP as per PART VIII of the Constitution, particularly Article 218 (3) which assigned the duty to the ECP to ensure the holding of fair and free elections.

The president conveyed that it was ultimately the commission, which if it failed to discharge its functions and duties, was to be held responsible and answerable for the violation of the Constitution.

The Interior Ministry yesterday informed the commission the armed forces would not be able to perform security duties during the provincial assembly elections in Punjab and KP as well as by-elections on 64 National Assembly seats as it was busy conducting census and counter-terror operations.

Earlier this week, the electoral body had written to the federal government, seeking the deployment of troops of civil armed forces for the conduct of general and by-elections in various constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies.