With just 10 days left to the polls of May 14, the electoral authority has clearly conveyed its concerns to the apex court, The Friday Times has reliably learnt.
The ECP has submitted three reports to SC in response to its orders. The government has to provide Rs21 billion to the Commission to conduct elections.
As the country's top court last month ordered government to hold snap polls in Punjab, the Commission maintained it hadn’t even printed ballot papers and other material, due to the unavailability of funds.
On Wednesday, ECP approached SC, requesting it to reconsider its directives regarding elections for the elections, pleading with it not to become involved in its affairs.
In a petition, the electoral authority said the apex court should review its decision because the judiciary doesn’t have the authority to set the date of elections, followed by the ECP final report.
The ECP asserted, citing several legal precedents and justifications, that “such powers exist elsewhere under the Constitution but certainly do not lie in a court of law.”
By setting a date, it added, the court had ignored its constitutional authority and that its own intervention was necessary to correct an error that had effectively altered the established constitutional jurisprudence.
The decision on the PTI's petition contesting the ECP decision to push back Punjab Assembly elections to October was made public by a three-judge SC bench made up of Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Munib Akhtar, last month.
The top court has allowed political parties more time to reach a consensus on the date of elections to put the matter to rest as early and as smoothly as possible, with the ECP final report now submitted.