By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Talks between Pakistan’s coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the opposition party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI), made progress on Friday towards breaking the deadlock over the timing of elections.
The two sides agreed to hold a final round of talks on May 2 to attempt to form a consensus on a date for upcoming elections in the country.
Negotiations between the PTI and the government began on Thursday, with a second round of talks held on Friday. The development followed the dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies by Khan’s party and its allies in January to force Prime Minister Sharif’s coalition administration to hold early national elections.
According to the constitution, elections are required to be held within 90 days after the dissolution of an assembly. However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) delayed the polls last month citing security and financial reasons, while the PTI went to the Supreme Court to challenge the decision.
After hearing the case, the top court fixed May 14 as the date to hold elections in Punjab, ordering the country’s central bank to provide funds amounting to Rs21 billion to the election regulator for the polls.
The government has refused election funds and claimed that the judiciary is undermining parliament’s authority.
Although the talks have generated some optimism, the dialogue process still appears to be fraught with the possibility of failure. Important figures from both sides in their remarks stuck to their guns and questioned the utility of negotiations if one side does not agree with the other’s suggestion.
The PTI insisted on a date for the dissolution of the National Assembly prior to the presentation of the budget to “reduce political tension”. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar denied any deadlock in the talks and said the two sides had tabled their proposals, which would be put before the government and PTI leadership.
“Some progress has been made today… and an almost final round will be held next week,” said Dar, declining to give further details.
PTI’s leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters that negotiations were held in a “pleasant environment” and with the intention to “find a way forward while staying within the ambit of the Constitution”.
“In my view, we made appropriate progress in this regard. We have taken a break so that we may talk to our leadership, and they discuss it with their coalition partners. We have agreed to meet again on Tuesday at 11 a.m.,” he said.
Ahead of the second round of talks, PTI chief Khan said he had requested the party negotiators to initiate talks with the government only if the ruling party was prepared to immediately dissolve the assemblies and hold elections.
“There’s no need to proceed if they insist on holding polls in September or October,” Khan said.
He said it would be a breach of the Constitution if the Punjab Assembly elections were not held on May 14, adding the ball is now in the government’s court, as they can hold simultaneous elections by dissolving the National Assembly prematurely.
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