ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party will meet today to finalize a date for quitting provincial legislatures in the country, a Khan aide said on Monday, after the former premier announced they would not remain part of a “corrupt” political system.
Khan, who was ousted in a parliamentary no-trust vote in April, has since been agitating against the government of PM Shehbaz Sharif and demanding snap polls, saying his ouster was part of a United States-backed “foreign conspiracy” for pursuing an independent foreign policy. Washington and Khan’s opponents deny the allegation.
Khan’s announcement to quit assemblies came at a rally in Rawalpindi over the weekend, which followed months of campaigning by the ex-premier to garner public support in favor of his demands.
Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, a close aide of ex-PM Khan, said on Monday the party had summoned a meeting of its senior members to finalize a date for the dissolution of two provincial legislatures and resigning en masse from two others.
“The meeting will ponder over a date of dissolution of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies and resigning from Sindh and Balochistan assemblies,” Hussain said on Twitter early Monday.
“With these decisions, 64 percent of seats in Pakistan will become vacant and the way for general elections will be paved.”
Khan, who was expected to announce a march on Islamabad for a final showdown with the government, told supporters at Saturday’s rally he had decided to avoid it in order “to circumvent chaos.”
But his warning to quit assemblies appears to have mounted little to no pressure on the government, which says polls would be held as scheduled in the latter half of 2023.
Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Sunday that even Khan’s party knew that early elections were not possible as the post-flood reconstruction and rehabilitation process in Sindh and Balochistan provinces would take up to eight months.
“Also, in March or April, the results of the new census will be released. The Sindh government and the province have a clear stance that next elections must be held on the basis of the new census,” he told Pakistan’s Geo News channel Sunday night.
“So, if the results are out by March or April, then the election commission requires four to five months for new delimitation [of constituencies], so it is extended till August.”
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has already resigned from the National Assembly, while it rules Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa together with its allies.
Also on Sunday, Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi said he wouldn’t “wait for a minute” to dissolve the provincial assembly, if Khan asked him to do so.
According to Pakistan’s constitution, the governor of a province can dissolve its assembly on the advice of its chief minister.
Iqbal, however, said there was an administrative and a natural timetable of elections that might not change, hinting that polls could be held in October next year.
