ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presided over a meeting of Pakistan’s ruling coalition on Wednesday in which it was decided to hold another consultation with the heads of parties in the government after Eid holidays in a bid to take the national dialogue with opposition forces over the elections to next stage.
Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been demanding early elections since his ouster from power in a no-confidence vote last April. The government has repeatedly dismissed his demand in the past, though the dissolution of the assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces by Khan’s political party and allies in January has made the situation more serious.
Pakistan’s top court has also taken up the matter for hearing and instructed the government to release the required funds to help arrange the electoral contest in the two provinces.
According to the country’s official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency, the government once again highlighted its resolve to hold general elections on the same day later this year, though it showed more flexibility on the idea of holding a dialogue with Khan’s party.
“The meeting … unanimously decided to convene a meeting of the leaders of ruling alliance after Eid Al-Fitr so that the ongoing national process of consultation with all political parties within and outside the Parliament could be taken to the next stage,” the APP reported.
It added the meeting clarified that consultations within the ruling parties were already underway, and the prime minister’s recent interaction with the chief of a right-wing Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, was part of the same process.
“As politicians, we neither close doors of dialogue for anyone, nor any democracy-lover can do it,” the APP quoted the participants of the meeting as saying.
The ruling coalition also reiterated that it wanted elections whose results were acceptable to every party, adding that the country was not in a position to face a situation of further political instability.
