ISLAMABAD: Members of Pakistani opposition parties say they want early general elections and will resign en masse from the national and provincial legislatures if Prime Minister Imran Khan does not dissolve the National Assembly before Senate polls, due to be held in March.
The opposition has recently formed the Pakistan Democratic Movement, vowing to hold countrywide protests that are aimed to dislodge the government before the polls at the upper house, in which the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is expected to gain a majority. Analysts told Arab News PTI's win would be a setback to opposition parties.
“Imran Khan should dissolve the assemblies himself,” Muhammad Zubair, a spokesman for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) opposition party, told Arab News on Friday. “If he doesn’t do so, this [en masse resignations] will be our last option.”
The opposition demanded a new vote since the government of PM Khan came to power "through rigged elections,” Zubair added.
Khan’s PTI party came into power in July 2018 by defeating all major opposition factions in the general elections. Opposition parties have recently accused the military of rigging the election in favour of Khan, which both Khan and the military vociferously deny.
Opposition parties have a majority in the 104-member upper house and have blocked many government bills in recent months.
Senate elections are held every three years to elect half of its members. Each senator has a term of six years.
“It is a unanimous decision of all opposition parties to resign from the assemblies at a suitable time,” Palwasha Khan, deputy information secretary information of the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP), told Arab News.
“People should be given a chance to elect their representatives through free, fair and transparent elections,” she said, adding that the opposition parties would force the government to dissolve the assembly through mass public gatherings and street agitation.
Political analysts say it remains to be seen if opposition parties would be able to mobilize the public and their own members.
“The opposition parties have many rifts within their ranks and it’s difficult to say at this stage if they will be able to persuade all their elected members to resign en masse,” Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, president of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), told Arab News.
He said that there was no precedent in Pakistan’s political history of such resignations, but “if the opposition parties go ahead as per their plans, they can create a political storm, but still there is no guarantee of fresh elections.”
