Elections on the same day are acceptable to Imran, but he has one stipulation: the National Assembly must be dissolved by May 14th.
We are ready to accept the condition of holding simultaneous polls in the entire country, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan said in separate interviews in ISLAMABAD and LAHORE, but he added that “malice is evident” in the matter of dissolving the assembly after the budget.
On Saturday, the former prime minister made these remarks to the senior PTI leaders: “If you [the coalition rulers] want to pass the budget, first win the election and the people will give you their mandate.”
Many prominent Pakistani politicians, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Fawad Chaudhry, Shibli Faraz, Senator Azam Swati, Ijaz Chaudhry, Hammad Azhar, and Mahmood Khan, were present.
Various proposals and potential next steps were discussed, and the former prime minister was given a comprehensive update on the ongoing government dialogue process.
After hours raid on the home of central party president and former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was roundly criticized during the meeting.
Reports from inside the meeting indicate that the leaders there speculated that the police action was part of a plot to stop negotiations with the administration.
Participants felt that the government would have a better chance of winning their appeal to postpone the elections if the party called off the debate.
The leaders also advised ending the engagement with the government immediately if their proposal was rejected. Nonetheless, the leaders stressed the importance of continuing dialogue with the government.
Azhar, general secretary of the PTI in central Punjab, told the media that the talks with the government will continue and that there was no opposition to the idea.
Elahi’s home being raided in the middle of the night has been called the “worst kind of political victimisation” by the PTI leaders.
After a six-hour operation, the Punjab police and the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) failed to apprehend Elahi, the former chief minister. The PTI, which had been complaining about the detention of its members and leaders, responded angrily to the move.
PTI Vice Chairman Qureshi, after meeting with Elahi’s family, told the media that the former CM was on bail when the police invaded his house to arrest him. He also said that the sanctity of Elahi’s home had been breached because the police did not have a search warrant. The government’s decision has left him speechless, and he has condemned it.
For their bravery and perseverance in the face of state cruelty, he lauded the PTI president and his family.
He claimed that it was common knowledge that Elahi had helped out PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif and his family during a rough time.
The PTI had hit a hard patch. He recalled that not too long ago, the home of PTI Chairman Imran was attacked while his wife was home alone.
Qureshi told the media that he brought up the issue of the arrests of their staff during negotiations with the coalition government. “What’s going on?”
When asked about the status of the workers, he responded, “After we raised this issue with the government team, the workers were released.”
Senior Vice President of the PTI Fawad also tweeted his disapproval of the police action, adding that the attack on Elahi’s house, Ali Amin Gandapur’s continued detention despite posting bail, and the arrests of party workers rendered the dialogue process futile.
“How can the administration take major choices if its negotiation team cannot keep a friendly atmosphere for meetings, despite their assurances?
We will decide whether or not to continue the talks at the upcoming meeting presided over by the PTI chairman,” he added.
Elahi’s son, Moonis, rushed to Twitter shortly after the news broke to criticize the police’s response, alleging that the Punjab police had shown up at their home to arrest his father, despite the fact that he had been released on bond.
Senator Ali Zafar, a senior member of the PTI, expressed his confusion about the police action by saying that, on the one hand, conversations were taking place in a pleasant atmosphere and the two parties were making progress, and on the other hand, a police operation was carried out. “I do not understand its purpose,” he continued.
The attack on Elahi’s home breached democratic standards because it targeted a private residence and targeted women. The decision on whether or not to attend Tuesday’s bargaining meeting will be made today, he stressed.
Dr. Yasmin Rashid, president of the PTI in central Punjab, issued a statement condemning the attack and accusing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of engaging in “the worst kind of revenge politics.” The foreign government is quite violent in its suppression of dissenters. At the urging of the government, the Punjab Police has gone to extremes of persecution and injustice.
Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, a key official in the Pakistan Peoples Party, has spoken out against the search of the former Punjab CM’s home.
He told the press that political tensions would rise if people like Elahi’s home were subject to a search warrant.
He said that the raid on Elahi’s home was the beginning of a new era marked by oppression and fascism and that the government and its supporters had suffered heavy losses because of the incident.
He further said the administration was trying to scuttle negotiations while also trying to sway the courts on the important issue of holding elections in Punjab and K-P within 90 days of dissolving the two provincial assemblies. As a result, “the Supreme Court did not change its order and the elections will be held on May 14,” he said.
There have been two rounds of negotiations between the government and PTI leaders, and a third is set to take place on Tuesday.
The ruling coalition and PTI leaders sat down across the table on April 27 after months of political fighting, renewing hopes that the country’s political and constitutional impasse could be resolved.
At the Parliament House, leaders from the coalition parties and the PTI met for the first time since Imran Khan was ousted as prime minister in a vote of no-confidence in April of last year. Consensus building on holding nationwide elections at the same time was something both parties considered.
On April 28, officials from both sides kept working toward a consensus on how to hold general elections through conversation, and the talks themselves showed no signs of faltering.
During negotiations, the PTI demanded that the National Assembly and the two remaining provincial assemblies (Sindh and Balochistan) be dissolved as soon as possible so that elections may be called on the same day in July of this year.
However, the government argued that it should serve out its full constitutional term and suggested that elections take place in August or September.
By Tuesday, it had hoped to have received feedback from the coalition’s political parties. The PTI is opposed to the government presenting the budget, among other things, but the administration is adamant on doing so.
Earlier this year, in January, the PTI succeeded in dissolving the provincial legislatures of Punjab and K-P in an effort to compel the federal government to convene general elections ahead of schedule. Despite the Supreme Court’s intervention and the passing of the constitutional deadline for holding elections (90 days), the party has failed to achieve its goal.
After the government announced the date of dissolution for both the national and provincial assemblies, the PTI delegation argued that the date of the polls in Punjab, ordered by the Supreme Court on May 14, could be extended. The government, however, has not yet committed to a specific date. As the constitutional deadline for holding elections in Punjab and K-P following the dissolution of assemblies had already passed, the two sides also discussed providing constitutional cover to past and some future events.
The government delegation included Senator Yousaf Raza Gilani of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Minister of Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique, Minister of Law Azam Nazir Tarar, Minister of Economic Affairs Ayaz Sadiq, Minister of Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, and Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Tariq Bashir Cheema of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).
Senator Zafar and PTI members Fawad and Vice Chairman Qureshi also attended. The two groups have scheduled to meet again at 11 a.m. on Tuesday in the Parliament House.
