Pak court to hear on Thursday issue related to provincial elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday stepped in to resolve the issue of provincial elections after the official failure to timely address the issue.

The assemblies of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were dissolved prematurely in January. Polls should be held within 90 days as per constitutional requirements.

But the governors of the two provinces refused to set dates while the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) also wasted time instead of pushing for dates, which prompted President Arif Alvi to announce April 9 as the elections' day.

However, the federal government refused to accept it by saying that Alvi was not empowered to set the date, creating a kind of crisis.

In the wake of the apparent stalemate, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial took suo motu notice of the issue and constituted a nine-member bench to hear the matter on Thursday at 2 pm.

The bench includes Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah.

It shows that the apex court would decide the date after hearing the arguments of the ECP and receptive provincial governments and order the governors or the election body to announce the schedule for elections.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)