ISLAMABAD: Former premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party vowed on Wednesday to continue protesting in different forms to pressure the coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to announce early elections.
Since his ouster from power in April through a parliamentary vote of no-confidence, Khan has been holding public rallies and sit-ins to pressure the government to announce fresh polls. PM Sharif has rejected Khan’s demand multiple times, saying general elections would be held in time as per schedule in October next year after the completion of the five-year term of the national and provincial assemblies.
“We have used all lawful and constitutional means to resist this government, and will continue doing so till the last date,” PTI secretary-general Asad Umar said at a briefing with international correspondents in Islamabad.
“The forms of our protests keep changing, so I cannot tell you for sure what we will be doing as a next step, but I can tell you with certainty that this will continue.”
Leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Asad Umar (R) speaks with the media outside the Supreme Court building in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 6, 2022. (AFP/File)
Khan’s campaign for snap polls and his standoff with the government since being ousted from power has heightened political uncertainty in the South Asian nation even as it struggles to stave off financial default.
Umar said that given the worsening financial crisis in the country, it was to his party’s advantage if the government completed its terms.
“We will be even better off politically in the next three months [if government completes its term], but it is going to be bad for the country,” he said. “The country will get economically weaker and land into a dangerous territory if this setup continues.”
Speaking about a rise in militancy in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the PTI is in power, Umar admitted the security situation was deteriorating and some of the districts were in ‘serious problem.’ However, he added that targeted military operations were already underway in different parts of the province to flush out militants and the situation would improve soon.
“Pakistan is slipping into a chaos with every passing day, and that’s why we are urging the government to call fresh elections, so that a new elected government could deal with all these issues,” he said.
On Khan’s threat to dissolve two provincial assemblies, in KP and Balochistan, Umar said the PTI was committed to the decision to force the government to call early polls.
Punjab, controlled by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, is the country’s most populous province and makes up nearly half of the country’s population of 220 million.
The dissolutions could create a fresh constitutional crisis in the country.
Historically, polls for the federal and provincial governments are held at the same time in a general election every five years. If the two provincial assemblies are dissolved earlier, separate polls would have to be held for them within 90 days, which could throw up legal problems.
Umar expressed concern that the Sharif government would use growing militancy in KP as a “pretext” to delay the elections.
“If the KP assembly is dissolved, they [Sharif government] may use militancy as an excuse to delay the elections. Yes, there are chances of it,” he said.
About Pak-US relations, he said Khan had never said Pakistan would sever diplomatic relations with the United States if his party came to power.
Khan has blamed his removal on a regime change conspiracy by the US, which Washington denies.
“Imran Khan has never said we won’t have any diplomatic relations with the US,” Umar said, “but if the US or any country interferes in Pakistan’s domestic politics or policy decisions, then it is not acceptable.”
