PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani has said a contempt of court case will be filed against Governor Ghulam Ali for failing to propose a date for the elections in the province despite orders of the Supreme Court in this respect.

In a message shared with mediapersons on Sunday, he said the case would be filed on Monday (today).

He said that as speaker of the provincial assembly, he had requested the governor to propose a date for holding polls in the province.

“The Constitution says that elections should be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the assembly,” Mr Ghani said, adding that the governor had proposed a date but later wrote a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan, arguing it was difficult to hold elections in the province due to precarious security and financial situation.

On March 15, Governor Ghulam Ali had fixed May 28 as the date for polls to the provincial assembly, but without officially communicating the decision to the ECP.

However, on March 18, the governor backtracked, arguing key challenges were needed to be addressed before announcing a new date for the polls.

In a letter sent to the ECP in response to the election watchdog’s communication asking him to formally set a date for the provincial assembly polls, the governor instead of conveying the date had said KP remained epicentre of terrorism due to long-drawn war against terrorism and security-centric policies.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2023