ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Monday released its report on the performance of tribunals in the country.

FAFEN has systematically monitored the processing of electoral complaints filed with 23 electoral courts and found that by August 17, 2024, only 25 out of 377 complaints had been rejected by the courts – a meager seven percent.

Of the rejected petitions, four related to National Assembly (NA) constituencies and 21 to Provincial Assembly (PA) constituencies.

Since six tribunals in Punjab province remain inactive, this slow pace may result in many petitions remaining pending beyond the statutory time limit of 180 days from the date of their filing.

By law, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is required to publish the names of elected candidates (candidates who received the highest number of votes) and all other opposing candidates along with the number of votes they received in the Official Gazette (Section 98 of the Election Act, 2017).

Any defeated candidate may file a petition within 45 days of the official announcement of the returned candidate (Section 142). Each petition will be decided within 180 days of filing (Section 148).

Through amendments to the Elections Act 2017, which came into force in August 2023, Parliament extended the time limit for disposal of election complaints from 120 to 180 days from the date of their filing. The amendments also introduced measures to expedite the disposal of complaints by limiting the maximum duration of stay orders issued by higher courts in such cases to six months.

However, the FAFEN report pointed out that the ongoing functioning of the tribunals, particularly in Punjab, was not in line with the spirit of the law. This was due to several factors, including ongoing differences in legal interpretation between the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Lahore High Court (LHC) over the notification of the establishment of six tribunals in the province, which had led to their dysfunctionality.