The Election Commission of Pakistan issued the schedule for 2024’s general elections on Friday. The schedule has once officially confirmed that the elections will take place on February 8.

Accoridng 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.

On December 13, the ECP will allot election symbols to candidates whose names have been finalised.

After this, the polls will be held on February 8.

The schedule was announced after ECP called a meeting to discuss the election schedule on Friday after the Supreme Court order.

The meeting was be chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja. ECP’s secretary and DG law also attended the meeting.

Following the SC decision, the government also restored the notification for the training of returning officers. THe training is expected to resume from Monday.

In an informal talk, the CEC said that he had never said that elections would be delayed.

He added that the Commission had denied reports of approaching the SC on Thursday as the decision had not been made at that point.

Raja added that the meeting with Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had be ‘cordial’.

The meeting was called after a three-member bench of the SC suspended the LHC order against the appointment of returning officers in the country. The court also ordered the ECP to issue the schedule.