President warns PM of ‘contempt of court’ if polls not held ‘as per given timeframe’

Arif Alvi writes letter to Shehbaz Sharif on holding elections in Punjab, KP n Expresses concern over ‘no meaningful consultation’ with him by PM n Criticises ‘fake cases’ towards politicians and ‘atrocities of police against innocent citizens’.

 

ISLAMABAD    –    President Dr Arif Alvi has made one other in­tervention on the pre­vailing political situa­tion, delay in elections for Punjab and KP as­semblies and deterio­score press freedom state of affairs by writing a strong-worded letter to Prime Minister Sheh­baz Sharif.

Within the letter written to the PM yesterday, the President emphasised that every one involved ex­ecutive authorities of federal and provincial governments needs to be directed to chorus from abuse of human rights and help the Elec­tion Fee of Pa­kistan (ECP) for maintain­ing common elections in Punjab and Khyber Pa­khtunkhwa, throughout the timeframe, in compli­ance of Supreme Court docket’s order dated 1st March, 2023, to keep away from additional problems together with contempt of court docket.

The President stated that he was writing the letter as occasions had tak­en place within the latest previous that had been highlighted by the print, digital and social media about obtrusive violations of elementary and human rights that wanted to be dropped at the Prime Minister’s discover to make sure remedial measures and preventive motion.

The President acknowledged that elec­tions of provincial assemblies, in case of their dissolution un­der Article 105 or Article 112, had been required to be held inside 90 days below Article 224 (2) of the Structure. He added that the Supreme Court docket of Pakistan vide its order dated 1st March, 2023 had directed the ECP to suggest date(s) to the Presi­dent for holding the ballot with­in 90 days or on a date that de­viates to barest minimal from aforesaid deadline. 

He stated that the Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was additionally directed by the Supreme Court docket to nominate a date for holding the overall election for Provin­cial Meeting of Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa as per the timeframe. Subsequently, ECP had professional­posed holding of common elec­tions between 30th April – seventh Could, 2023 and common elections for the Provincial Meeting of Punjab had been introduced to be held on 30th April, 2023 and the identical was notified by the ECP.

The President stated that it appeared that federal and care-taker governments in Pun­jab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suggested the heads of involved departments to point their lack of ability to offer essential help for holding common elections. 

He referred to Article 220 of the Structure which states that “it shall be the duty of all ex­ecutive authorities in the Feder­ation and in the Provinces to as­sist the Commissioner and the Election Commission in the dis­charge of his or their functions”. The President underlined that in his opinion, flagrant violation of the Structure had been dedicated by the manager au­thorities and authorities de­partments, including that ECP had not carried out his announce­ment of holding common elec­tions in Punjab on 30th April, 2023 and in addition blatantly violated the Supreme Court docket’s order dat­ed 1st March, 2023. 

The ECP has introduced the date of eighth October, 2023 for holding common elections of provincial assemblies of Pun­jab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he stated.

The President additionally stated that it was a matter of concern that no significant session with the President on coverage points had been undertaken by the Prime Minister in keeping with the Article 46 of the Structure, which supplied that Prime Min­ister shall hold the President in­shaped on all issues of inter­nal and overseas coverage and on all legislative proposals the feder­al authorities intends to carry earlier than the Parliament.

He added that Rule 15(5) of Guidelines of Enterprise, 1973 additionally highlighted the duty of the Prime Minister, inter-alia, to furnish such info re­lating to the administration of affairs of the Federation and proposals for laws because the President might name for.

In his letter, the President additionally drew the eye of the Prime Minister in direction of the se­riousness of incidents of Human Rights violations, atrocities of police/regulation enforcement agen­cies and grossly disproportion­ate use of pressure towards the citi­zens of Pakistan. 

He stated that a number of faux and frivolous circumstances had been registered towards politicians, employees, journalists and me­dia individuals; homes of politi­cal employees had been raided, and residents had been abduct­ed with out warrants and lawful justification.

The President termed the in­cidents of human rights viola­tions and oppression by state equipment towards harmless cit­izens as in “clear breach and vi­olations of elementary rights assured by Article four of the Structure that gives for, and ensures residents to en­pleasure the safety of regulation and to be handled in accordance with the regulation. He additionally referred to Ar­ticle 9 on ‘security of person’, Article 10 on ‘safeguards as to arrest and detention’, Article 10-A on ‘right to fair trial’, Arti­cle 14 on ‘inviolability of dignity of man etc.’, Article 15 on ‘free­dom of movement etc.’, Article 16 on ‘freedom of assembly’, Article 17 on ‘freedom of asso­ciation’ and Article 19 on ‘free­dom of speech’, and stated that the spirit and mandate of those ar­ticles had been being clearly trans­gressed? This has tarnished the picture of Pakistan within the in­ternational group and is casting adverse repercussions on the way forward for democracy and state of Human Rights in Paki­stan, he added.

The President additional excessive­lighted that in World Press Free­dom Index of 2021, Pakistan ranked 145 out of 180 coun­tries and dropped to 157 i.e., 12 factors downwards within the World Press Freedom Index, 2022, which mirrored the sorry state of affairs and this yr’s actions and pictures would additional exac­erbate Pakistan’s already dis­mal rating. 

He wrote that in latest months, media had been additional suppressed and journalists had additionally been subjected to costs of sedition and terrorism to sti­fle dissent and criticism towards the federal government. It seems that a reign of terror has been un­leashed towards the media per­sons who’ve impartial opinions, he added.

The President concluded that the Prime Minister, being head of Authorities, was responsi­ble for the safeguard of Human Rights in addition to Basic Rights of each citizen of Paki­stan as enshrined within the Con­stitution, and due to this fact, all con­cerned government authorities of federal and provincial govern­ments needs to be directed to chorus from abuse of human rights and in addition to help the ECP to carry common elections in Pun­jab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.