ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is all set to launch a fresh anti-government protest movement over a delay in elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, a spokesperson for the party said on Wednesday.
The development comes after talks between the opposition PTI and the coalition government led by PM Shehbaz Sharif failed to develop a consensus on a date for national elections. The political impasse has lingered since January when the PTI and its allies dissolved legislative assemblies in Punjab and KP to force the federal government to call early national elections.
Khan’s PTI had been gambling on the Sharif government being unable to afford to hold the provincial elections separately from the nationwide election, which is otherwise due by October.
Under Pakistani law, fresh polls for the two provincial assemblies should be held within 90 days of their dissolution.
“We are all set to launch an anti-government movement as they have violated the constitution,” Musarrat Jamshed Cheema, a spokesperson for Khan’s party, told Arab News on Wednesday. “Our preparation is complete.”
Cheema said Khan would chair a crucial party meeting on Thursday or Friday to “finalize the strategy to launch the street movement soon.” She did not share a date for when the movement would start.
After weeks of delays and political wrangling after the KP and Punjab assemblies were dissolved in January, the Supreme Court in a three-to-two verdict on March 1 ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to fulfil its constitutional obligation and announce an election schedule for Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ECP subsequently said the vote in Punjab would be held on April 30 but later said it was impossible to hold it in April due to security and financial concerns. It announced October 8 as the new poll date in Punjab.
Khan’s PTI party then approached the Supreme Court, which on April 4 ruled that the ECP’s postponement decision was illegal and elections should be held on May 14.
Cheema said her party has submitted a detailed report on talks with the government in the Supreme Court: “Now it is up to the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the government and get its order implemented.”
“Being a political party, we can only agitate against the government for its persistent violation of the constitution,” she said, urging the public to stand by the Supreme Court and uphold the constitution.
Meanwhile, the ECP on Wednesday filed a review petition in the top court, urging it to review its April 4 judgment that Punjab polls be held on May 14, arguing that the judiciary “doesn’t have the authority to give the date of elections.”
In the 14-page petition, the election commission accused the apex court of assuming the role of a public body by intervening in election matters:
“The intervention by the court is necessitated to correct an error which has effectively changed the settled constitutional jurisprudence of the country.”
The ECP said it was solely the regulator's domain to change the election programme and the Supreme Court “should have exercised judicial restraint” instead of fixing the election date itself and thereb rendering the election commission “virtually toothless.”
“Therefore, the impugned order under review, humbly submitted, has breached the salient principle of the trichotomy of powers and thus is not sustainable,” the petition said.
Separately on Wednesday, the PTI filed a petition in the Supreme Court, calling on it to implement its order that Punjab polls be held on May 14.
“In spite of the best efforts of parties, no solution within the constitution could be arrived at,” the PTI said in its petition, referring to failed talks with the government and urging the court to implement its order “so that the constitution is upheld and doesn’t stand violated.”
“We know now that both sides are not ready to change their position over the election date, therefore this political crisis will continue,” political analyst and author Zahid Hussain told Arab News.
“It will be difficult for the Supreme Court now as well to implement its judgment as the election commission has filed a review petition while the government has also raised questions over the integrity of some judges,” he added.
Political science professor Dr Rasul Bakhsh Rais said the coalition government led by PM Sharif was "trying to make the system collapse" by defying the Supreme Court's ruling.
“They want to rule either through chaos or make the institutions function in their political interest,” he told Arab News. “Winning or losing is secondary at the moment as Pakistan’s political and constitutional crisis is going to further deepen.”
Finance minister Ishaq Dar, who was part of the government negotiating team, admitted that the two sides could not finalise a date for general polls, saying it was a “complex process.”
“We showed as much flexibility as we could. They (PTI) also showed a great deal of flexibility,” Dar added.
