By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, led by former cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan, on Sunday threatened to launch a protest movement if negotiations with the government over the issue of the next national elections fail.
The PTI dissolved the provincial assemblies in Punjab and KPK in January in an effort to push the coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to hold early polls.
Fawad Chaudhry, a senior leader of the PTI, said in a Twitter post that the party wants the negotiations with the government to succeed, but has formulated a strategy in case they fail.
“It is not possible for the PTI to sit silently if the Constitution is considered as a piece of garbage and the public as insects.”
Chaudhry called on the people to prepare for a ‘massive movement,’ which would start with rallies in Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar and culminate in a historic long march.
Khan, later, announced rallies to be held in Lahore, Peshawar, and Rawalpindi on Monday, May 1, in commemoration of Labour Day and to demonstrate solidarity with the Supreme Court.
During the Haqeeqi Azadi transmission at his Lahore Zaman Park residence, Khan said that he would lead the rally in Lahore, marching from Liberty to Nasir Bagh.
He called on all labourers and PTI workers to join the rally in Lahore. “I call on all our labours and PTI workers to join our rally in Lahore to express solidarity with the labours, and especially to give a message that the entire nation is standing behind the Supreme Court for the sanctity of the Constitution.”
After two rounds of talks, the government and PTI teams are scheduled to hold a final round of negotiations on Tuesday in Islamabad. In the previous meetings, both sides have shared proposals with each other for approval of their respective leaderships.
Both sides engaged in talks earlier this week on the advice of the Supreme Court to resolve the impasse.
The Supreme Court in its April 4 order fixed May 14 for Punjab polls, directing the coalition government to provide funds worth Rs21 billion and extend all other necessary support, including security, for national elections.
The coalition government has so far refused to budge on its stance on holding the national elections in October.
Speaking to party workers early on Sunday morning, Khan said that the PTI wanted the government to dissolve the National Assembly before May 14, or else his party would proceed with the Punjab elections as per the top court’s order.
“If elections are denied, these people will not stay peaceful and Pakistan may face a situation worse than Sri Lanka.”
Khan accused the coalition government of having ulterior motives behind their proposal to hold elections simultaneously with the announcement of the next fiscal year’s budget in June.
“The government is saying that first, it would pass the budget, and then hold the election. This shows its ill-intention.”
Khan was given a detailed briefing on the dialogue with the government at a meeting, while various proposals and future courses of action also came under discussion.
Leaders at the meeting expressed concern that If the party were to halt the dialogue, it could provide the government with an opening to argue for postponing the elections in the Supreme Court.
They also suggested that negotiations with the government should not drag on indefinitely and that if their proposal was not accepted, the dialogue should be terminated.
Separately, in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sharif in Lahore, the senior leadership of the PML-N decided that it would not back down from its demand for simultaneous polls across the country.
A senior PML-N leader stated that the party would not accept Khan’s demand for the dissolution of the National Assembly and that such preconditions by the opposition would derail the negotiation process.
Political analysts said both the PTI and the government wanted to achieve desired results from the talks, but were not willing to find a middle ground to break the weeks-long impasse over the elections.
It is challenging to see a breakthrough in the talks as the coalition government, especially the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, is allegedly engaged in a witch-hunt of political opponents in Punjab.
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