The delay in decisions by the Election Tribunals, even after the passage of 18 months, is a deviation from the Constitution, and unbecoming of justice in real time. To this day, 374 election petitions, 124 for National Assembly and 250 in the four provincial assemblies, are under the hammer, and they roughly constitute 62% and 50%, respectively. The time limit for the disposal of election petitions is 180 days from the date of their filing, according to an amendment enacted in August 2023.
The fact that lethargy is prevalent and the judiciary seems to be in an indecisive mood speaks of the status quo that prevails in the wake of the tampered February 2024 elections, and the ensuing political instability.
Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), a think tank that conducts research on electoral and public policy issues, has persistently followed this issue, and its latest report documents that between April 21 and July 31, 2025, election tribunals decided only 35 election petitions related to National Assembly. As many as 84 election tribunals’ verdicts (in a total of 171 resolved petitions across the four provinces) have been challenged before the Supreme Court. P
unjab has been stalemating the most, whereas Balochistan was quick to address many of its petitions at the provincial cadre. It is unfortunate to learn that tribunals and concerning judicial officers were seen shying behind legal interpretations and difference of opinion between the Election Commission and the Lahore High Court. In this ordeal, six tribunals wasted weeks and months as diverging notifications had rendered them dysfunctional.
The electoral watchdog is primarily responsible for this ultra vires modus operandi, as it had exhibited an open and shut discrimination towards the PTI. Most of the Independent candidates awaiting their petitions to be heard, and decided, belong to the PTI, comprising 55% of the total petitions. It is quite evident that political exigency on the part of the coalition government had played a role in hampering constitutional bodies and lawful tribunals from dispensing their duties; and this warrants legal course correction as early as possible.
