Electoral Commission Says Pakistan Will Hold Delayed Elections On February 8

(CTN News) – Despite overlapping political, economic, and security crises, Pakistan is planning to hold its national elections delayed until February as a result of overlapping political, economic, and security crises.

As a result of its meeting with President Arif Alvi, it has been unanimously decided that the election will take place on Thursday, February 8,” the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said in a statement on Thursday after the meeting.

It has been a caretaker Pakistan government that has been in charge of the South Asian country since the parliament was dissolved on August 9.

A referendum was supposed to take place within 90 days of parliament’s dissolution, but the Electoral Commission of Poland (ECP) said it needed time to redraw constituency boundaries following the recent census in order to hold the elections.

According to the ECP, polls are not allowed to be held until the constituencies have been redrawn according to the latest population count, a process that will take at least four months to complete, as stipulated in the Constitution.

There is also a mandate for the caretaker government, which is led by Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, to ensure the holding of transparent elections.

In spite of this, there have been concerns about whether the caretaker government and the ECP will be able to hold a fair election, given that the main opposition party in the country, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and its leader, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, have been subjected to a nationwide crackdown for months.

In April of last year, Khan and his government were removed from power as a result of a vote of no confidence in parliament.

Following his removal from office, the 70-year-old was convicted of corruption on August 5 following a campaign to hold early elections across the country following his removal.

As a result, a court suspended Khan’s three-year sentence, but he is still in prison on charges related to the “cypher case”. In this case, Khan is accused of making the contents of a diplomatic cable public for the purpose of political gain.

Pakistan has been facing political uncertainty at a time when the economy has been in a state of instability. Prior to the International Monetary Fund granting the country a $3bn bailout package in June, the country had been struggling with a balance of payments crisis as it attempted to service high levels of external debt and cope with crushing inflation at the same time.

During the previous coalition government, unpopular measures were taken by the government, such as removing fuel subsidies and gradually increasing the fuel and energy tariffs, leading to record-breaking inflation in the country, which in turn triggered nationwide protests throughout the country.

As well as the security concerns, there have also been a number of attacks carried out by the Pakistan Taliban, which have made a resurgence in recent years, in the northwestern and southwestern provinces of the country.

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