Contrary to the Supreme Court’s orders, the Election Commission of Pakistan has not received the funds it requires to conduct general elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had set April 10 as the deadline for the government to release funds to the commission for conducting the polls.
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The election commission staff submitted a sealed report to the Supreme Court’s Registrar Office, in line with the court’s deadline issued for the same, whether it receives the funds or not.
The apex court judges will review the report in-chamber. An order regarding the provision of funds is likely to be issued after that.
After a meeting with the prime minister, the attorney general for Pakistan also met with the chief justice of Pakistan for half an hour, and discussed judicial matters.
The federal government has so far not issued Rs21 billion to the ECP for conducting elections in Punjab and KP. Instead, it took the matter to parliament on Monday, where Finance Minister Ishaq Dar presented a bill regarding the allocation of funds for the general elections in the two provinces.
This was done just a few hours before the deadline set by the Supreme Court for the distribution of the funds expired.
During the session, Dar explained that the purpose of the bill is to help the ECP in its efforts to conduct free and fair elections. It is now the responsibility of the Parliament to decide whether funds to ECP should be released or not.
