[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]LAHORE: Despite the Supreme Court’s clear orders to hold elections in Punjab, which is also a constitutional requirement, Federal Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah has announced that elections will not be held on May 14, instead holding them simultaneously across the country.
Sanaullah’s statement came at a time when two political parties – the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami – were separately attempting to end the country’s political impasse by bringing the ruling alliance and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to the negotiating table.
This statement by the interior minister is not only an open defiance of the court orders, but it also dampens hopes for any effective arbitration because the PTI, the ruling alliance’s only real opposition, wants the government to own the primacy of constitutionally mandated elections in Punjab before engaging in any dialogue process.
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Sanaullah told Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz workers in Faisalabad that no matter how hard they try, without naming anyone, the elections will be held concurrently under the caretaker regime, and that too this year.
He stated, however, that PML-N workers should continue with their preparations regardless of when the elections are held. Sanaullah reiterated his claim several dozen times, each time with a different timeframe and excuse, that as elections approach, “Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan and will lead the electoral campaign.”
Nawaz has been living in London under the guise of a medical condition since 2019 in order to avoid serving time in his home country.
Sanaullah accused “Imran Khan and his cohorts” of steering the economy into a financial disaster, claiming that the PTI chairman was launched as part of an anti-Pakistan conspiracy.
He stated, however, that PML-N workers should continue with their preparations regardless of when the elections are held. Sanaullah reiterated his claim several dozen times, each time with a different timeframe and excuse, that as elections approach, “Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan and will lead the electoral campaign.”
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Nawaz has been living in London under the guise of a medical condition since 2019 in order to avoid serving time in his home country.
Sanaullah accused “Imran Khan and his cohorts” of steering the economy into a financial disaster, claiming that the PTI chairman was launched as part of an anti-Pakistan conspiracy.
He said it was because of Imran that Pakistan was forced to “rub its nose before countries for a billion dollars”. The minister who pinned the blame on PTI chief Imran Khan for the back breaking price hikes brought on by policies and mismanagement of his government, said that it was the IMF deal agreed by the PTI government that was causing this inflation in Pakistan.
However, he claimed that this downhill economic slide was coming to an end and soon the government would turn things around for good.
Prior to Sanaullah, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also the president of Pakistan Democratic Movement, also termed Imran irrelevant in Pakistani politics and called him a “stooge of foreign forces”, asserting that they had not stooped so low to hold a dialogue with him.
On the other hand, the PPP was making a sincere attempt to persuade government parties to agree to talks with all political stakeholders. So far, the PPP’s actions have been limited to engaging with allied parties rather than the PTI.
Furthermore, JI leaders recently met with both former Prime Minister Imran Khan and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and persuaded both parties to engage in dialogue.
On Saturday, a JI spokesperson stated that the party would hold an all-party conference following Eidul Fitr in which all parties would be invited to work out a way out of the current quagmire.
A senior PTI leader, on the other hand, did not see the JI’s attempt as fruitful, claiming that the JI had no leverage on either side and that, as a shadow of their former self, they lacked the position of authority required for arbitration.
However, he stated that the PTI would continue to participate in the dialogue because they believed in the democratic principle.
The PTI has formed a three-person committee led by former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Pervez Khattak.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
