SC to hear petition for countrywide polls today.

ISLAMABAD: A three-member Supreme Court bench will hear a petition on Friday (today), requesting the top court to order that elections be held on the same day across the country. The bench will be headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar. The petition filed by a citizen, Sardar Kashif Khan, nominated the federal government, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and major political parties as respondents. The petition states it would be "in the interests of justice and equity as well as fulfilment of the constitutional imperatives (and balancing of competing constitutional requirements) if the general elections of National Assembly and all four provincial assemblies were held together rather than in piecemeal".

If elections across the country were held on the same day, they would be done under caretaker setups which would "ensure that the general elections are carried out honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with law". "Having political governments in power in the provinces when general elections are being held for the National Assembly has the potential to adversely affect the National Assembly election more than in the inverse situation since provincial governments have operational control of all day-to-day affairs in the respective NA constituencies (other than those in ICT)," the...