Pakistan’s ruling coalition using negotiations to delay general elections: Former PM Imran Khan – Times of India

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan‘s ruling coalition is using the pretence of dialogue with the opposition to delay general elections and the government has not yet formally reached out to his party for talks, former prime minister Imran Khan has said.
In an interview with the ARY news channel, Khan, chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, said that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is yet to approach his party for negotiations.
“No one from the PDM has formally approached us yet,” Khan said.
“I fear they are using these negotiations to delay elections. They are just buying time so that elections can be delayed beyond October,” he said.
Last week, the Supreme Court asked all political parties to evolve a consensus on the date for holding simultaneous general elections to the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies expeditiously.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led PDM coalition rejected the apex court order, saying that talks with the PTI party could not be held under the court’s watch.
“I fear they are using these negotiations to delay elections. They are just buying time so that elections can be delayed beyond October,” Khan was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.
The National Assembly will complete its five-year term in August this year. According to the Constitution, elections shall be held within 90 days after the dissolution of the lower house. This means that the election must be held by mid-October. The last general election was held in July 2018.
Khan has been pushing for snap elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provinces where his PTI ruled till recently.
The PTI dissolved the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies on January 14 and 18, respectively, in a bid to force the ruling PDM coalition in Islamabad to hold early general elections in the country.
Khan added that he gave the Central Vice Chairman of the PTI, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the mandate to hold talks with the PDM.
He also asserted that the PTI was adamant about holding elections in Punjab, referring to the Supreme Court’s April 4 order in which it directed the government to hold polls in the province on May 14, the report said.
The Supreme Court termed as “unconstitutional” Pakistan’s election commission’s decision to postpone polls in Punjab till October 8 and fixed May 14 as the date for polls in the province.
“Talks can be held if they have a proposal on joint elections,” the PTI chief was quoted as saying in the report.
“If they give a Supreme Court-endorsed proposal on joint and immediate polls — by dissolving their governments in May — only then we can talk,” the 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician said, adding, “But if they are leaving it open-ended, then it is nothing but a trap.”
Parliament and the judiciary have also locked horns over the holding of elections in the two provinces, as the cash-strapped government has refused to authorise the funds to meet the expenditures amidst the economic crisis facing the country.
The PTI is determined to press for polls in the provincial legislatures, but the government maintains its stance on simultaneous elections across the country.
Asserting that the current caretaker setups should be removed, Khan said, “These setups have become unconstitutional now and we want genuine caretaker governments to be brought.”
The PTI party on Sunday announced that it will formally launch its election campaign in Punjab on Monday, though there is no clarity on the date of the polls in the politically crucial province.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is waiting for funds from the federal government to conduct the elections. The Defence Ministry has informed the ECP that the Pakistan Army will not be available to provide security.
The Supreme Court directed the federal government to release Rs 21 billion in funds for the ECP by April 10 and provide security for the elections.
However, the government has refused to release funds for the polls as the Parliament rejected the proposal.
The defence ministry had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court calling it to take back its order of holding polls on May 14. The case is being heard in the Supreme Court, and during the proceedings, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial remarked that the three-member bench will not take back the order.