If the government notified the 2023 census, kicking in the process for fresh delimitations, the general elections could be delayed until March 2024, a legal expert warned on Friday.

Pakistan Bar Council Chairman Hasan Raza Pasha was speaking on Aaj News show Rubaroo.

Supreme Court Bar Association President Abid Zuberi and former deputy attorney general of Pakistan. Raja Khalid Mehmood Khan were also on the show.

“What we are hearing is that if the census is notified then legally it is bound that you have to do delimitation then elections are held so maybe if it is done then I think till March,” the Pakistan Bar Council chairman said.

Some of the ruling party including MQM-P have been demanding fresh delimitation based on the 2023 census while others such as PPP believe the vote could go ahead without changing the number and composition of constituencies because the census has not been notified so far.

There are others indication that the caretaker government may run the country beyond the maximum three month period prescribed in the Constitution.

Earlier this week, the government amended the Election Act that granted additional powers to the caretaker setup as many in the ruling coalition thought the three months tenure “was useless” without such powers.

Pasha was of the view that elections won’t be delayed beyond March. If notification was issued it would take four to six months for the Election Commission of Pakistan to complete delimitation as it has sought, he added.

Further, he said that the political temperature would rise.

But former deputy attorney general for Pakistan Raja Khalid Mehmood Khan expressed hope that polls would be held on time. He was hopeful that elections would be held in the first week of November.

Supreme Court Bar Association President Abid Zuberi reiterated his stance over elections, saying that the Constitution and the Supreme Court order on elections to the assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were violated.

He added that the government, Parliament, and the ECP cross the Rubicon and wondered about the role of interim setup in the two provinces in general elections. Zuberi also expressed concerns over the amendments to the Election Act.

The SCBA added that the political temperature won’t rise in March as senators would be completing their tenures and going into an election that was a permanent body.

Pasha joined the discussion and explained that when May 14 order for election came in Punjab, the authority concerned – ECP – said that census was awaited.

“It was one of the grounds. Today this thing is waiting for a notification. So is that reason now over?” he gave his analysis. Pasha stressed the need for following Constitution.

Zuberi added: “When a case related to a no-confidence motion was heard in the case, then the CEC was asked how much time you need for elections. He said they need seven months for delimitation and census. This means they must have been ready by October last year and still they are not ready.”