ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s interior minister Rana Sanaullah said on Thursday early elections in the country would be announced after seeking the approval of all coalition partners.
Sanaullah was talking to the media in London with other senior leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, who are in the British capital as part of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s delegation to meet former premier Nawaz Sharif.
Nawaz, a three-time prime minister, is the founder of the PML-N party and Sharif’s elder brother. The PM and his cabinet are in London to brief him on key political, economic and administrative issues facing the cash-strapped country and seek his guidance.
Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been seeking fresh elections since his ouster from power last month in a no-confidence vote.
Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif (center right), Nawaz Sharif (center left) and cabinet members attend a meeting in London, UK, on May 11, 2022. (@PML-N/Twitter)
“All decisions including early elections will be announced with the support and approval of all coalition partners,” the interior minister said.
“Will carry out electoral reforms, to work on [mechanism] for the representation of overseas Pakistanis [in parliament] but abolish [use of] EVM [electronic voting machines],” the minister said.
A key ally in the ruling collation, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), had said earlier this week the coalition government would only go to polls after introducing electoral reforms in the country.
Khan’s government was toppled last month through a no-confidence vote in parliament after his key coalition partners and some party lawmakers abandoned him. He has since claimed that his ouster was part of an American conspiracy and has refused to accept Shehbaz Sharif as new prime minister, asking for early elections.
The prime minister’s visit to London along with his top cabinet members, at a time of economic and constitutional crisis in Pakistan, has sparked widespread criticism, with many experts and critics commenting it was not appropriate for him to embark on a private visit to deal with party matters.
Nawaz, then PM, was found guilty in 2017 on charges of concealing assets related to the Panama Papers revelations. The supreme court ordered him removed from office and he was subsequently jailed. In November 2019, he left Pakistan to seek medical treatment in London after being granted bail but has since not returned.
