Meeting on polls under PDM, PTI, establishment ‘ideal’ situation: Fawad

• Fawad says the parties will have to pass a constitutional amendment by consensus.
• He says that PTI dissolved the assemblies so that elections would be held.
• We thought the government would not violate the constitution, he says.

Senior Vice President of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Fawad Chaudhry said the “ideal” situation to deal with the crisis surrounding the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa elections is for the ruling parties, the establishment and the PTI to meet together.

“The parties will have to sit together and pass a constitutional amendment by consensus to hold elections at some point,” Fawad said when asked if the PTI would agree to hold polls on a date other than May 14.

A day earlier, the former ruling party made another dialogue offer to the coalition government to finalize a date for the post-party ‘national elections’ national Assembly passed a resolution rejecting the “minority” verdict of the three-member Supreme Court on the Punjab elections and making it binding on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet not to implement the decision.

PTI chairman Imran Khan – who has been calling for snap elections across the country since his ouster last April – previously said he was prepared to wait until October for polls if the PDM government shares a roadmap with him to ensure that all comes in order.

“The government has rejected the Supreme Court ruling, is not following the constitution and is holding elections. This attitude of the government is not how a country is run,” said the former minister.

Fawad said the PTI dissolved the provincial assemblies so that the incumbent government would hold national elections, but it turned out that the ruling coalition does not even abide by the constitution or the law.

“We thought the government wouldn’t break the constitution, we didn’t think this would happen. They resorted to brutality, imprisoning and torturing 10-year-olds. This turnaround in one year is unimaginable,” he said.

Political temperatures in the country flared on Tuesday as a three-member Supreme Court judge unanimously declared the order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to postpone elections in Punjab and KP “unconstitutional”.

The three-member bench – led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and consisting of Judge Munib Akhtar and Judge Ijaz Ul Ahsan – ordered the electoral watchdog to hold elections in Punjab on May 14 – the verdict against which the incumbent government .

The ECP postponed the date of the Punjab elections to October 8 – initially scheduled for April 30 – citing a resurgence in terror attacks, a shortage of security personnel and an unprecedented economic crisis.

Following the apex court order, the election commission reported May 14 as the election date, resuming the deadlocked voting process on April 10.