Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered authorities to hold key provincial elections in a ruling that could deepen the country’s current political crisis.
A three-judge bench in the capital Islamabad overturned the decision of the country’s poll body to postpone elections in the province of Punjab until October due to security threats and a lack of funds.
The court said elections in the politically significant province must be held between April 30 and May 15, fulfilling a demand by the party of opposition leader Imran Khan.
“It is our victory. It’s the victory of democracy,” Shah Mehmoud Qureshi, Khan’s political aide, said outside the court compound.
Khan’s party dissolved the legislature in two provinces including Punjab this year to force early elections.
Khan was ousted as prime minister by Pakistan’s national parliament through a vote of no confidence last year.
He has since been seeking fresh elections.
The government said it would not accept a decision by a divided court as some of the judges had already rejected Khan’s plea seeking early elections.
“We want all judges of the Supreme Court to decide on elections,” Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar said after the ruling.
Stand-offs between the government and the top judiciary have resulted in military coups in Pakistan, a country ruled by powerful generals for half of its existence.
Pakistan, a South Asian nuclear power with a more than 220 million mainly Muslim population, is already facing an economic crisis as it reels from last year’s devastating floods.
Experts have said a political crisis on top of an economic one might pose a formidable challenge for the country.
