LAHORE: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has asserted that he was ready to forgive the ‘attackers’ – who orchestrated an assassination attempt against him in November 2022, ARY News reported on Saturday.
Addressing the party workers and supporters via video link, the PTI chief said that he was ready to talk to everyone, stressing the need to work together to steer the country out of the current crises.
A day earlier, President Arif Alvi announced April 30 as the date for elections in Punjab following the Supreme Court’s (SC) verdict in holding elections within 90 days.
The announcement from President Alvi comes after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) proposed dates for the election in the province in light of the Supreme Court (SC) verdict.
“President Dr Arif Alvi has announced to hold general elections of Punjab Assembly on April 30, Sunday,” tweeted the President’s office. “The decision was made by the president after considering the dates proposed by the Election Commission of Pakistan,” it added.
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The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) today proposed Punjab election date between April 30 and May 7 in a letter written to President Arif Alvi.
SC verdict
The Supreme Court, in a 3-2 verdict, ruled on Wednesday that elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab should be held within 90 days.
CJP Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar supported the verdict, while Justice Jamal Mandokhail and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah opposed the admissibility of the suo moto notice and dissented from the majority verdict.
Justice Shah and Justice Mandokhail in their dissenting notes agreed with the position of Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Athar Minallah. “The matter was already being heard in the high courts, Supreme Court cannot take suo moto notice on the undertrial cases in the high courts.”
The short verdict stated that the Election Commission of Pakistan failed in discharging its role in the election. The announcement of the election date in KP is the responsibility of the provincial governor, while the president has the authority as per law and constitution to fix the election date in Punjab.
The verdict further stated a consultation to fix the date of elections in Punjab, if they are not possible on April 9, the date announced by the president.