By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Political deadlock over the scheduling of elections remains unresolved as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, submitted a letter to the Supreme Court seeking the implementation of the court’s order on holding the Punjab elections on May 14.
The letter stated that no solution within the Constitution could be found, despite the best efforts of the ruling alliance and the opposition PTI.
The development comes a day after the government claimed that both sides had agreed to conduct polls throughout the country at the same time, following the third round of negotiations in Islamabad, as ordered by the country’s top court to resolve the political impasse.
The controversy began in January when Khan’s PTI and its allies dissolved the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to force the government to call early elections across the country.
The constitution requires elections to be held within 90 days of the dissolution of an assembly or after it finishes its tenure and ceases to exist.
Historically, the country has held voting for provincial and national assemblies on the same day. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government has maintained that it would only agree to elections being held simultaneously across the country.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar reported “huge progress” in the government-PTI talks, saying that both sides were trying to show flexibility and had agreed to hold the polls on the same day. However, PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi regretted that no decision could be taken on “practicable proposals” put forward by his party.
The opposition submitted a report on the government-PTI negotiations in the apex court, which detailed that the ruling alliance suggested that elections should be held for the national and provincial assemblies on the same day in October 2023, after the dissolution of the National Assembly and the legislatures of Sindh and Balochistan.
However, the PTI extended a proposal that elections be held across the country on the same date, subject to certain conditions.
These conditions included the dissolution of the National Assembly and other provincial assemblies by or before May 14, and the holding of elections to the National Assembly and provincial assemblies of Sindh, Punjab, KP, and Balochistan within 60 days of the dissolution of the national and provincial assemblies.
Additionally, MNAs belonging to PTI would rejoin the NA to give constitutional cover to the holding of elections to the provincial assemblies of Punjab and KP beyond the period of 90 days.
The government rejected this proposal and instead proposed that the dissolution of the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan shall take place on July 30, and elections be held in 90 days thereafter for the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, KP, and Balochistan together in the first week of October 2023.
The opposition party has highlighted a lack of consensus between the parties regarding the implementation of the agreement.
The PTI has prayed that the judgment passed in Constitution Petition No.5 of 2023 requiring elections to be held to the Punjab Assembly on May 14 may be implemented in letter and spirit to uphold the Constitution.
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