ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry shared on Sunday the party Chief Imran Khan advice to all party lawmakers to go back to their constituencies and prepare for elections.
The PTI Senior Vice President said that they will not waste any more time and call for elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. “The PDM would keep running from elections but they would not waste any more time.”
In a tweet on Sunday, Chaudhry added that “if PDM continues to run away from the elections, […] we will go for the provincial elections of Punjab and (Khyber) Pakhtunkhwa and the elections for the National Assembly would be held later”.
In a tweet today, KP government spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif assured the PTI leadership that the “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly would be dissolved on the order of Imran Khan”.
Yesterday, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, in a tweet, once again reiterated his support for Imran. “We are waiting for Imran’s signal to dissolve the Punjab Assembly. We remain loyal to whom we support.”
Elahi also professed his loyalty towards Imran, saying: “We are standing by Imran Khan and will continue to stand by him.”
On Sunday, PTI ally Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid said: “Either Imran will get a date for the elections by Dec 30 or will break up the assemblies; the ball is in the government’s court on whether they make or break politics.”
He lambasted the government for not being in a state to “go out into the people” and said that former finance minister Miftah Ismail had “conducted a post-mortem of their economy”.
Imran had on Friday stated — while speaking to legislators from the KP Assembly via video link from his Zaman Park residence — that he was “all set to dissolve the Punjab and KP assemblies this month and take 66 per cent of Pakistan to the polls”.
The former premier had made an offer to the government to “sit and talk” and announce a date for the general elections, failing which he would dissolve the provincial assemblies of Punjab and KP, which his party govern.
The former information minister added that Khan had advised all PTI candidates to go back to their constituencies and start preparing for elections. “National Assembly elections would be held afterwards if the government does not call for general polls, but PTI would opt for polls in Punjab and KP as soon as possible.”
In an interview with a private channel on Saturday, the PTI chief Imran Khan shared his willingness to delay dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies if the coalition government agrees to conduct elections by the end of March next year.
Khan said, “If they are ready for elections by the end of March, then we won’t dissolve the assemblies. Otherwise, we want to conduct polls by dissolving the KP and Punjab assemblies.”
He added that his party won’t agree on a date after March and assemblies will be dissolved this month [December] if the government disagrees.
“How long will they take to decide? They either have to say yes or no. We have already decided,” the former premier said, underlining his conditional stance on talks with the government on the election date.
Meetings with party lawmakers rescheduled
Meanwhile, former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan called off divisional-level advisory meetings, which were scheduled to be held on Sunday
According to details, the series of sessions with PTI divisional-level party activists regarding dissolution of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) assemblies is rescheduled for Monday.
PTI Chief whip Amir Kiyani will be instructed in Punjab Assembly tonight about the schedule of divisional meeting sessions, which he would convey to the members of Punjab division.
