Imran’s allies seek to dissolve assemblies to force early polls
Former PM’s party confident of holding on to power in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Allies of Pakistan’s former premier Imran Khan are moving to dissolve two of the four provincial assemblies in a bid to force Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to call for national elections well before November.
The assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces will be dissolved today to make way for local polls, said party officials from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The party is likely to win again and Khan will use this to show rivals that his popularity is unassailable.
The local legislatures are heading for a dissolution after Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, a Khan ally, unexpectedly called for and won a confidence vote in a late night session earlier this week.
Sharif repeatedly rejected Khan’s demands for snap elections, saying his government needs to focus instead on rebuilding the country after devastating floods. The economy faces a serious dollar shortage at a time when Pakistan’s loan program with the International Monetary Fund was delayed.
Tenure ends in August
The current government’s tenure ends in August and national elections have to be held within three months.
“Khan’s assessment is that he is enjoying a high level of popularity that can give him a clear majority in the parliament,” said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, president of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency in Islamabad.
“If the government even doesn’t agree on early general elections, then he can at least come into the Punjab assembly with a high degree of strength,” Mehboob added.
Show of strength
Khan, who led huge nationwide rallies and has won most of the by-elections since his ouster last April, sees early national elections as way to regain power and resolve the economic crisis that his critics say he was responsible for.
During Khan’s time in power, he had appointed four finance ministers and about half a dozen finance secretaries.
Sharif has invited all political parties, including PTI, to discuss and agree on an economic charter that would ensure a consistency in policy making no matter who governs Pakistan, a move that was immediately rejected.