A meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), the body that approves census findings, after which PM announced that elections would be held based on the 2023 digital census.
This was revealed in a prerecorded interview with the premier that aired on Tuesday on a News show “Faisla Aap Ka.” The premier’s government is due to hand over power to a caretaker setup in August.
Elections must be held using the new census data… Unless an insurmountable barrier prevents it, [polls] should be held on the basis of a census once one has been undertaken. I don’t think there’s going to be any problem,” he remarked.
The Prime Minister further stated that the CCI would be informed of the completed census as soon as possible. While he was adamant that election delays were not warranted, he did note that “the ball will be in the election commission’s court” if problems should arise.
The declaration made by PM Shehbaz differs from the claims made by his ministers, who have indicated that the upcoming election will be based on the census data from 2017. The ruling allies in the Centre, namely the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), who believe that Karachi’s population was undercounted in the new census, responded angrily to this decision.
As if to pacify the party, Prime Minister Shehbaz met with its leaders in Karachi last week and promised that a final decision would be reached only after input from all coalition members.
Assemblies will end before August 12th
In today’s interview, PM Shehbaz also announced that assemblies would be dissolved before August 12.
The five-year term of the National Assembly began on August 12, 2018, under the then-PTI administration and will end on the same day this year under a PM-Shehbaz-led ruling coalition, after previous premier Imran Khan was removed from office via a vote of no confidence in April of last year.
Article 224 of the Constitution states, “Except where the Assembly has been sooner dissolved, general elections to the National Assembly or a provincial assembly shall be held within a period of 60 days immediately following the day on which the term of the assembly is due to expire.”
According to Article 224(2), the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) must schedule general elections within 90 days of an early dissolution. The prime minister and opposition leader have yet to initiate negotiations regarding the appointment of the caretakers, despite the fact that only a few days remain until the assembly is dissolved.
Caretaker government will take charge before elections
During the interview, PM Shehbaz addressed this issue, saying that action will be taken once consultation with allies was complete. He hoped that “we agree on a name who is eligible to meet the requirements of the caretaker government and take forward Pakistan’s economic progress.” He also stated confidently that PML-N leader and his brother Nawaz Sharif, who has been living in self-imposed exile in London due to health reasons, would return to Pakistan.
He stated, “His medical check-up will be done, and he will return when he gets a clean chit,” adding that the complaint launched against him was unrelated to his homecoming. The prime minister added that Nawaz would become the country’s top executive for the fourth time if his party were to win the upcoming elections.
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