The Pakistani Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered snap elections to proceed in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, overriding efforts by the administration of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to delay the votes until October.

The ruling, which requires elections to be held no later than May 15, was seen as a major victory for former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is trying to oust Sharif by forcing an early general election.

The Supreme Court ruled the order to delay the elections, issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), was “unconstitutional, without lawful authority or jurisdiction.”

“Neither the constitution nor the law empowers the commission to extend the date of elections beyond the 90 days,” the ruling said. The government was ordered to allocate at least $70 million to hold the elections.

The snap elections in both provinces were pushed from April 30 to October 8 by the election commission’s order, ostensibly because it was “not possible to hold and organize the elections honestly, justly, fairly, in a peaceful manner” due to security threats and insufficient funding.

The snap elections were forced by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the political party of Sharif’s predecessor, Imran Khan. 

Khan was forced out of office by a parliamentary vote of no confidence in April 2022 and has been plotting his political comeback ever since. PTI has been trying to force Sharif to hold early nationwide elections, convinced that fiery Islamist Khan would win – in no small part thanks to public unrest over the deteriorating Pakistani economy.

As part of that strategy, PTI used its control to dissolve the provincial legislatures and administrations in Punjab, the most heavily populated Pakistani province, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in January. Pakistan normally holds provincial and national elections together, but PTI hoped that by forcing one in massive Punjab, it could trigger a political avalanche that would force the nationals to be moved up as well. PTI quickly filed suit in the Supreme Court when the government sought to delay the elections.

Khan and his party hailed the Supreme Court decision as a victory for the rule of law, while his critics accused him of running a conspiracy to undermine the government and seize power.

“The Supreme Court has today buried the doctrine of necessity, restored the sanctity of the constitution and buried all those conspiratorial forces that were creating hurdles in the way of democracy and a democratic and constitutional system in this country,” senior PTI leader Mahmood Qureshi told reporters outside the court building. 

“Our constitution, democracy, Supreme Court and high judiciary are all our red lines,” declared PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry. 

“The government is facing a likely defeat due to Imran Khan’s surging popularity. It is likely that they will try their best to delay the implementation of this order through a steady drip of creative excuse-making,” predicted another lawyer, Abdul Moiz Jaferii.

The Pakistani Cabinet immediately rejected the Supreme Court’s order as a “minority verdict” because two of the five judges recused themselves. 

Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s niece and senior vice president of his Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) party, said the Supreme Court decision was about “rewriting the Constitution and presenting the Punjab government on a plate” to Khan. She derided the three Supreme Court judges as “Khan’s facilitators” and accused them of bending the law to install him as prime minister.

Maryam Sharif urged parliament to thwart Khan’s plot with all of the “constitutional and legal” powers at its disposal, including a suggestion that he and his co-conspirators should be brought up on unspecified charges.

Khan pushed back by insisting there was no good reason to delay the snap elections, repeating his claim that many members of his party have been jailed and “subjected to torture” by the Sharif government, and accusing the government of “openly targeting the judges” that ruled in his favor.

“How will they manage the expenses of the elections in October, if they say that they have no money?” he asked, mocking one of the reasons given for delaying the snap polls from April to October. He went on to assail Sharif’s handling of the economy.