Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has advised the President for the dissolution of the National Assembly, hopefully paving the way for general elections to be held to the National Assembly and all four provincial assemblies in 90 days, with the Election Commission of Pakistan fixing the exact date. The President immediately dissolved, thereby setting November 8 as the maximum to which elections can be stretched. There is an increasing noise that elections will not be held on time because of fresh delimitations, based on the census held this year. Only if a politician feels he can win will he ask for fresh elections, otherwise, he would prefer to avoid them. There is no real room in the Constitution for putting off elections, and in fact, holding them on time is the main duty of the caretaker government. This is paradoxically a return to the instability preceding the last election, when the fall of Mian Nawaz Sharif led to a period of instability which the elections did not end. The opposition has always insisted that the PTI was brought to office in 2018, but in 2022, it took the support of those same smaller parties and independents to form a government. This Parliament was the fourth in succession to have the PM changed in the middle of the term, but was the first to have the government’s party complexion changed. That was not the only first. It was also the first House to remove a Prime Minister through a vote of no-confidence. It was also the first House in which members criticized the judiciary.
The PDM on taking over lost its opposition, as the PTI resigned and left. The resignations were accepted but by-elections were not held. The PTI held negotiations on its return, but nothing came of it, with the result that Raja Riaz, the PTI dissident, remained Leader of the Opposition, and enjoys his moment in the sun, consulting for all it’s worth, on who should be the next caretaker PM.
While the National Assembly is one of the two Houses of a legislature, it did not do a particularly outstanding job. Whereas the PDM only brought legislation it was interested in, until the last days before dissolution, when it rushed through legislation, and might have passed some bad laws, like the Official Secrets Act amendments, had it not been for a rebellion within its own ranks. The PTI was hardly better; lacking a Senate majority it relied heavily on ordinances. It is to be hoped that the House to be elected will do a better job.
