By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presided over a crucial meeting on Wednesday to delve into the country’s political situation and devise strategies to tackle legal and constitutional challenges.
During the high-level meeting, it was decided to convene a gathering of ruling coalition party leaders after Eid-ul Fitr to advance the national consultation process with parties both inside and outside parliament.
The consultative meeting aims to establish a consensus on crucial issues and set the tone for future negotiations between different political factions in the country.
A statement from the prime minister’s office said the meeting reiterated its previously stated position of holding general elections on the same day under caretaker governments, in accordance with constitutional procedures.
The process of pre-consultation and negotiations regarding the holding of elections is ongoing among the coalition parties, for which the prime minister has already formed a committee, it added.
The participants emphasized that the coalition government has expressed its willingness to engage in meaningful, serious, and constitutionally bounded negotiations and that politicians have never closed the door of dialogue to anyone.
The meeting was called in response to Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial’s suggestion that political parties settle the matter of election data through a process of dialogue.
Former president and co-chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party Asif Ali Zardari welcomed the chief justice suggestion and requested some time from the top judge for this purpose.
“We also want elections on a single day through negotiations. We have even started discussions [on the matter] with each other a few days ago,” Zardari said.
The former president of the country said that once the ruling coalition reaches a consensus, it will discuss the issue with the opposition.
The far-right party Jamaat-e-Islami also praised the top judge recommendation and requested more time from the Supreme Court for negotiations between political stakeholders.
The party said that under the leadership of its chief Sirajul Haq, it was making sincere efforts to kick off the negotiation process. The JI had already initiated discussions and contacts with other political parties for this purpose.
During the proceedings of the case related to the delay in polls, the attorney general for Pakistan also told the court that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had met the premier a day earlier and all ruling parties, except one of them, were willing to talk with former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
He added that the matter could be resolved if the “court gave more time”.
Justice Bandial appreciated the AGP’s stance and said it had ‘some weight’ and the court could ‘make some room’ if all political parties were united in their stance.
“If the political parties come together, the court can make room for them and change the date of elections. If not, the elections will be conducted on May 14,” the CJP remarked.
Tensions between the government and Khan’s party have been on the rise ever since the former premier was ousted in a parliamentary vote last year.
Khan refuses to recognize the government and has been pressurizing it to hold snap elections.
Prime Minister Sharif and his coalition government have categorically rejected his demand and said polls for all assemblies would be held as per schedule in October.
The government and judiciary have also grown increasingly hostile against one another after a judgment by the Supreme Court earlier this month called for elections in Pakistan’s Punjab province to be held on May 14.
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