Lahore: A Pakistani court on Friday set aside the Election Commission's schedule for holding by-elections to provincial and national assembly seats in Punjab province on November 7 following a request from authorities for the polls to be postponed due to security concerns.
The Punjab government had filed a petition in the Lahore High Court asking it to defer the by-elections due to terrorist threats to political and religious personalities.
While setting aside the schedule for the by-polls, Justice Saqib Nisar directed the Election Commission to thoroughly hear the provincial government's concerns about terror threats before finalising the new date for the polls.
Awami League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Salmaan Butt, who were planning to contest the polls from Rawalpindi and Lahore respectively, expressed dismay at the court's decision.
Ahmed said he would challenge the court's ruling in the Supreme Court.
Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had earlier said Tehrik-e-Talban Pakistan planned to launch attacks on political and religious personalities who were planning to contest the elections or would be involved in campaigning.
Among the personalities who could be targeted by militants are Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and cricketer- turned politician Imran Khan, he said. Nawaz Sharif, who could not contest the February 18, 2008 general election because some criminal cases were pending against him at the time, was seeking election to the National Assembly or lower house of parliament from a constituency in Lahore.
Media reports said Sharif cannot contest polls until 2010 under an agreement brokered by the Saudi royal family in 1999 that allowed the PML-N chief to go into exile after being deposed by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
The reports suggested that the Punjab government had approached the High Court to postpone the bye-polls to save Sharif from "embarrassment". However, the PML-N has dismissed these reports.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, October 09, 2009, 15:51