A two-member bench led by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan will conduct a hearing on a petition filed by a PTI lawyer to hold the general elections under the supervision of the judiciary.

The court will hear the case on December 18.

Moazzam Butt, a PTI lawyer, had filed the petition seeking the judiciary’s supervision in the elections.

The development came a day after the Supreme Court suspended the Lahore High Court’s order against the appointment of returning officers across the country.

It is pertinent to mention that the apex court suspended the LHC decision on the ROs appointment and called upon the petitioner, Umer Niazi, to explain how his order did not constitute contempt of court.

During the hearing, Supreme Court Justice Sardar Tariq Masood said that the lawyer who had filed the petition in the LHC could have been using PTI’s name. He said that it needed to be examined who was trying to derail elections when the SC had issued a clear order.

When the bench asked what PTI’s problem with the district administration was, the lawyer replied that the party had said that the bureaucracy was part of the executive who had been issuing MPOs.

Soon after the apex court’s verdict, the Election Commission of Pakistan issued the schedule for 2024’s general elections. The schedule has once officially confirmed that the elections will take place on February 8.

According to the schedule, the Commission will accept nomination papers from December 20 to 22. The schedule also says that the returning officers will complete scrutiny of the papers by December 30.

Appeals to the scrutiny process will have to be filed by January 3, and will be heard by January 10. A day later on December 11, the ECP will issue a revised list of candidates and will give candidates another day to withdraw their papers.