Islamabad (Web Desk/Agencies): Following the Supreme Court (SC) order, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday issued the election schedule for the forthcoming polls on February 8, 2024.
According to a notification, the Returning Officer (RO) will issue a public notice on December 19, and the period for filing nominations with the Returning Officer will be from December 20 to 22.
The electoral body stated that the names of nominated candidates will be published on December 23 and the scrutiny of their nomination papers will take place from December 24 to 30.
The deadline for filing appeals against the RO’s decisions on accepting or rejecting nomination papers is January 3, and the appellate tribunal is expected to decide on the appeals by January 10.
The revised list of candidates will be published on January 11 and the last date for withdrawing one’s candidature is January 12.
As per the ECP, the election symbols will be assigned to political parties on January 13 and the polling is scheduled to be held on February 8.
Earlier on Friday, the SC suspended Lahore High Court’s (LHC) verdict against the appointment of returning officers (ROs) and district returning officers (DROs) from the bureaucracy.
The ECP had challenged the LHC order that suspended the above-mentioned appointments.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Sardar Tariq Masood heard the petition.
In its ruling, the top court also ordered the ECP to issue election schedule by Friday night.
The development came a day after the ECP suspended the ongoing training of ROs and DROs in compliance with the orders of LHC.
An ECP spokesperson on Thursday had stated that the LHC suspended the electoral body's notification dated December 11, 2023, related to the appointment of 142 District Returning Officers (DROs), 859 Assistant Returning Officers (AROs), and Returning Officers from the executive for the upcoming General Elections 2024.
LHC's Justice Ali Baqir Najafi had Wednesday night ruled on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) plea, which contended that the electoral body's move to appoint DROs and ROs from bureaucracy would hinder the prospects of impartial and transparent elections.
Accepting the PTI's plea, Justice Najafi suspended the ECP's notification and referred the matter to referred the case to the LHC chief justice, recommending constituting a larger bench to hear the case.