ISLAMABAD: The governor of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has asked the country’s election regulator to hold the provincial assembly elections on October 8, the same date when polls will be held for the Punjab Assembly, in view of the rising “terrorist” incidents in the region and the ‘best interest” of people and the state. 

Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party dissolved the KP Assembly on January 18, shortly after the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly, in an effort to force early nationwide elections. The two provinces account for more than half of the country’s 220 million population. 

According to the Pakistani constitution, fresh polls for the two provincial assemblies should be held within 90 days of their dissolution. The PTI has been counting on the national government’s inability to afford to hold the provincial elections separately from a national election, which is otherwise due later this year. 

In a letter written to the ECP on Friday, a copy of which is available with Arab News, the governor suggested election be held in the province on October 8 after the election regulator announced on Wednesday that polls in the country’s most populous Punjab province would be postponed from April 30 to October 8. 

“Since ECP has postponed the election date for the general elections of Punjab province to 08 October 2023, therefore, it is also suggested that the same 08 October 2023 be proposed/appointed as the election date for General Elections of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the best public interest as well as in the interest of the state,” Governor Hajji Ghulam Ali said in his letter to the chief election commissioner. 

“Your good office must note that subsequent to my last letter, a fresh wave of terrorist activities had taken place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on daily basis.” 

He cited several incidents of militant violence as well as the killing of a high-ranking intelligence official in the province. 

“On 21 March 2023, a convoy was ambushed in South Waziristan resulting in the martyrdom of Brig. Mustafa Kamal Burki from the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) and injuring seven other ranks wherein two were critically injured,” the letter read. 

The election regulator this week postponed provincial assembly elections in Punjab, saying it was not possible to hold free and peaceful elections in April for several reasons, including the surge in militant attacks in the country. 

Khan’s PTI, however, has taken a strong exception to the decision and said it would challenge the decision in the Supreme Court, with a close Khan aide saying the “constitution and the Supreme Court have been practically abolished” under the Shehbaz-Sharif led government. 

Since Khan’s ouster in April last year, Pakistan has seen political instability rising in the country, with the former premier agitating against the central government, demanding nationwide elections. 

Khan and allies dissolved the two provincial legislatures with the same aim.