The PTI on Thursday approached the Supreme Court, asking it to direct the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa nearest to the 90-day period after the assembly’s dissolution, during which elections are to be held as per the Constitution.

In a petition filed through Advocate Ahmed Nawaz Chaudhry, the PTI has requested the apex court to set aside KP Governor Haji Ghulam Ali’s notification to postpone the elections by five months and direct the ECP to conduct the polls “not later than 90 days subject to the barest minimum to that timeframe”.

The Supreme Court on March 1 had ruled that elections in KP and Punjab should be held within 90 days, or on a date that “deviates to the barest minimum” from the constitutional deadline.

Subsequently, on March 14 the KP governor had suggested May 28 as the election date. However, following the ECP’s decision on March 22 to delay the Punjab polls till Oct 8, Governor Ali had proposed Oct 8 for polls in KP as well.

In its plea, the PTI has also asked the Supreme Court to declare the KP Governor’s letter and the ensuing ECP’s notification dated March 27 on the same matter as contrary to the top court’s directions given on March 1.

The petitioners include PTI Secretary General Asad Umar, KP Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, former KP chief minister Mehmood Khan and provincial ministers Taimur Saleem Jagra, Kamran Khan Bangash, Shaukat Ali Yousafzai and Muhammad Atif while the respondents include the ECP and Governor Ali.

PTI leader Faisal Javed Khan tweeted, “Elections in the entire country at once are only possible by dissolving the National Assembly and Sindh and Balochistan assemblies.

“As the Punjab and KP assemblies had already been dissolved, therefore elections should be held within 90 days there as per the Constitution,” he asserted.

In a video shared by PTI KP’s official Twitter account, PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan can be seen walking towards the Supreme Court to submit the party’s petition.

Grounds for case

The PTI has argued that the “ECP has no jurisdiction or power to amend the Constitution” and hold the elections beyond the constitutional period of 90 days. The electoral body also has “no power or jurisdiction to overrule or review” the Supreme Court’s verdict, the petition argues.

It further says that “under the Constitution, there is no provision in which an unelected and selected caretaker government can continue to operate for more than a period of 90 days”.

On the matter of the KP Governor citing security concerns as the reason behind the delay, the PTI has stated in its petition that the “Constitution of Pakistan does not recognise any such illegal excuses” like “so-called financial constraints or a perceived law and order situation or lack of availability of adequate personnel”.

The petition has also cited the Supreme Court’s latest order of April 4 — on a PTI petition against the Punjab poll delay — to argue that such reasons to delay elections were not accepted by the apex court as “justifiable or valid”.

The PTI also termed the reasons given by the KP Governor and ECP as “legally flawed and a disingenuous excuse”, adding that such excuses would be used whenever elections are to be held if once accepted.

It also requested that since the petition is “being filed in urgency”, the court permit additional grounds for the case when the plea is taken up by the court.