Pak Defence Ministry asks SC to cancel upcoming elections

Islamabad, April 19

Pakistans Defence Ministry has requested the Supreme Court to withdraw the order for the upcoming elections due to the fear of terrorist attacks.

The Ministry has submitted a sealed petition in the Supreme Court, requesting that the elections be held simultaneously across the country after the completion of the term of the National, Balochistan, and Sindh Assemblies, Samaa TV reported.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Finance Ministry and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have submitted their respective reports to the Supreme Court regarding the provision of funds for the elections in Punjab.

The SBP cited reasons for not releasing funds, while the Finance Ministry's report included details of the Cabinet's decision and referral of the matter to Parliament.

According to sources, the ECP report stated that insufficient funds were available for the elections and raised concerns over the lack of a security plan, Samaa TV reported.

The Defence Ministry report contained, for the most part, the same contentions which the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, director general of military operations and the defence secretary presented to the chief justice and two other judges during a nearly three-hour in-chamber briefing on Monday, Dawn reported.

The report also highlighted the need of holding the elections on the same day in view of the heightened security situation in the country, saying that the armed forces would be able to carry out election duties by early October.

"Due to the prevalent security situation and counter-terrorism operations being carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan as well as the intelligence-based operations in Punjab and Sindh, the armed forces, Rangers, Frontier Constabulary and other forces are not logistically available to be repositioned and re-posted for providing election security, twice in a span of six months," the report said.

"Significant time is required to prepare the members of the armed forces for the election duty, given much of the force has been actively engaged in operations for a considerable period of time," it said, adding the security situation in Punjab and Sindh has been stable in the light of the efforts of the ongoing operations in KP and Balochistan, respectively.

Therefore, any diversion of troops from KP and Balochistan will result in directly affecting the security situation in Punjab and Sindh, the application explained, Dawn reported.