After the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) suspended a Lahore High Court (LHC) order staying the appointment of Returning Officers (ROs) from the executive branch, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) released the much-awaited election schedule on Friday night, affirming that general polls in Pakistan are set to take place on February 8 next year.
ECP will now resume training ROs and District Returning Officers (DROs).
The election programme extends to reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the National Assembly (NA) as well as the four provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan.
The election schedule was released late at night in accordance with the directives of the SC.
Earlier, the Lahore High Court (LHC) stayed the notification of the appointment of DROs and ROs from the bureaucracy and halted their training.
The LHC announced its judgement in response to a petition submitted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
