PESHAWAR: Maulana Fazal ur-Rehman, leader of the far-right Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, declared there will not be any elections in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the dissolution of local legislatures, without elaborating further.
A snap election will be held in Punjab after the chief minister, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, triggered the poll last week by calling for the legislature to be dissolved, putting pressure on the central government of Shehbaz Sharif ahead of the planned general election.
Holding elections in a province with 110 million people, around half of Pakistan’s population, would be an expensive, logistically complicated exercise for a government dependent on foreign aid and reeling from the impact of last year’s devastating floods.
By bringing forward a provincial vote, however, political analysts say Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) could pressure the government into holding a countrywide election earlier to avoid the huge double cost of two votes.
Commenting on the apparent reluctance of the government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance which he heads to hold early elections, Rehman, who was speaking to reporters after attending a convention in Peshawar on Monday, insisted that national politics should be carried out in accordance with constitutional provisions and not subject to anyone’s whims.
He went on to claim that the ousting of former prime minister Imran Khan was a result of PDM efforts rather than a foreign conspiracy.
He also discussed the Constitution and Pakistan’s political system, stating that it is based on four pillars: Islam, democracy, federalism, and parliamentary democracy. He emphasised that Pakistan is an Islamic country as declared by the Constitution and cannot adopt secularism.
During the conversation, the politician also touched upon political issues such as the war in Afghanistan and the suppression of Muslims in other countries.
— With Reuters
