The Lahore High Court has suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s notification on seeking returning officers and district returning officers from bureaucracy for holding general elections, which are scheduled on February 8.

A single bench of the LHC headed by Justice Ali Baqir Najafi announced the reserved verdict on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s application against the order to organising polls through the executive.

The bench issued notices to the parties and recommended constituting a larger bench to hear the case. It also recommended that the case should be referred to the LHC chief justice.

In its five-page interim order, the high court highlighted that it takes billions of rupees of the country to hold elections and such an amount would be wasted if any major political party does not accept the election results.

It reminded the polls overseer that it has to hold free and fair elections. The LHC called for giving equal opportunity to voters and candidates for holding transparent elections.