PTI demands poll date by Dec 20

Fawad tells PDM to come up with election 'formula' or face the consequences

LAHORE:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday dialled up its threat of dissolving the assemblies and gave a clear deadline to the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to “come up with a final formula” for elections by December 20.

Taking to Twitter, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry criticised the rival political leaders saying they "do not want elections, but they have no idea how to run the country".

“The country is not run by just making ministers and making foreign visits,” he continued, “this is a complicated and difficult job for which their leadership is unfit.”

“Pakistan needs stability,” he added.

"If the PDM does not come up with a final formula for the country-wide general elections by December 20, then the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) assemblies will be dissolved and the process of general elections in Punjab and K-P will be completed before March 20," the PTI leader said.

"In this regard," he added "[we] have the full confidence of the allies".

A day earlier, former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan had said that he was sticking to his decision to dissolve the provincial assemblies in December in a bid to force the incumbent government into early elections.

“We will implement our decision to dissolve assemblies. We are holding consultations and preparing our party leaders because negotiations for caretaker set-up will start after the dissolution of assemblies,” the former premier had said in an interview with a local TV channel on Saturday.

When asked to give an exact date for the assemblies’ dissolution, Imran had said,

“It will be done in December”.

Uncertainty over assembly dissolution
 

On the other hand, Punjab CM Pervaiz Elahi, in an interview on a television channel, said that the provincial assembly will "continue the same way for the next four months till March” – a statement that appeared to militate against Imran’s resolve to scuttle assemblies this month.

"My stance is the same ... I will dissolve [the assembly] whenever he [Imran] tells me to," he had said. "That decision has been taken. However, now you'd have to think of its pros and cons. For that, we will have to hold talks."

Elahi had said that from now till March would be "the best time for the opposition to initiate talks", adding that homework also needs to be done on how the election would be conducted.

Meanwhile, in an apparent sign of rifts being healed among the Chaudhry’s of Gujrat amid moments of stark disagreements, PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi on Saturday confirmed that contacts between Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi have been restored after months of silent tug-of-war and incommunicado.

However, the young Elahi asserted that the Elahi faction has not budged from their position as he pressed the demand for snap polls. "There will be no compromise on the demand for snap polls and whatever PTI chairman Imran Khan says will happen. Elections are the solution for the current political situation," sources quoted Moonis as saying.