Law: Constitution of Pakistan, 1973

Section: 224(4),199

Law: Representation of the People Act, 1976

Section: 108

Constitution of Pakistan--- ----Arts. 224(4) & 199---Representation of the People Act (LXXXV of 1976), S.108---Constitutional petition---Bye-election---Election Commission of Pakistan, discretion of---Time of election and bye-election---Constitutional deadline requiring minimum unexpired term of 60 days of the Assembly, for a vacancy to be filled vide a bye-election, was implied and not express---Petitioner impugned schedule of bye-election on the ground that under Art.224 of the Constitution a bye-election should be held at least 60 days prior to the expiry of the legislative term of the Assembly; whereas the present bye-election was scheduled only 47 days before the expiry of the Assembly, and as such offended the Constitutional principle and should not therefore, be held---Validity---Article 224(4) of the Constitution did not expressly mandate/require a minimum unexpired legislative term of 60 days of the Assembly in which a vacancy had occurred in order for a bye-election to be held to fill such vacancy; however, it was clear that the period of unexpired legislative term of the Assembly was a crucial factor, which if less that 120 days from the occurrence of the vacancy, did not contemplate a bye-election to be held to fill such vacancy---Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) performed its function autonomously except where exercise of its discretion suffered from illegality or unreasonableness in which even High Court may interfere with the performance of such functions---Notwithstanding the right of the voters to be duly represented in the Assembly, Constitution did envisage their non-representation where a vacancy occurred on a date less than 120 days prior the expired legislative term; for which some guidance needed to be derived from the Constitutional criterion to balance the financial cost of the bye-election with non-representation of the constituency---In the present case, unexpired legislative term of the Assembly was only 13 days short of the implied minimum term of 60 days; and as the constitutional deadline in the matter was not express, therefore, the Election Commission of Pakistan possessed the discretion to strike a balance---Election…

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