n Both parties’ top brass believes there is no urgency for general elections

ISLAMABAD    -   Ruling partners, the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) have agreed to hold general elections on time next year and ruled out the possibility of early polls.

Political sources told The Nation that PPP and PML-N top leaders were unanimous about general elections on the scheduled time.

“The recent meetings and contacts between the top leadership have been positive about elections on time instead of early polls (as demanded by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf). This will also give time to the Election Commission to prepare for the elections,” said a close aide of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

He said the PPP and the PML-N leadership believes there was no urgency for the general elections.

“The coalition government will first try to fix the country’s economic woes and wait for the scheduled time to go for general elections. The by-elections in Punjab were constitutional requirement,” he added.

This week, PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said that the relationship between political parties and the establishment have improved a lot over the time, and he hoped to witness further improvement in this regard. “I wish Imran Khan would have thought about the rights of journalists even during his regime. Journalist community always enjoyed freedom during the government of Pakistan People’s Party,” Zardari asserted. Taking a swipe at the PTI chairman, he added that the era of Imran Khan had been a dark one in terms of press freedom.

General elections are scheduled to be held in Pakistan less than 60 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly, which is set to dissolve on 13th August 2023, unless dissolved earlier; in which case the election shall be held within 90 days after dissolution. This means that the elections  must be held by or before 12th October 2023. The previous general elections were held in Pakistan on July 25 , 2018   after the completion of a five-year term by the outgoing government. At the national level, elections were held in 272 constituencies, each electing one member to the National Assembly. At the provincial level, elections were held in each of the four provinces to elect Members of the Provincial Assemblies.

The PTI has been demanding early polls as it claims their government was toppled down under a foreign conspiracy and elections will decide the popularity of the parties.

PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari has advised the PTI leadership to be ‘patient’ and wait for the completion of the parliament’s five-year term. He said Imran Khan was demanding early elections and the PPP was not afraid of polls, but it wanted electoral reforms before holding the polls. “In our game plan, elections would come after electoral reforms,” Asif Zardari added.