Interim CMs warned of treason trial

PTI leaders say polls only way to save country; fear hyperinflation

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has made it clear that the caretaker chief ministers of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) will face treason proceedings under Article 6 of the Constitution if the elections are delayed beyond the stipulated period of 90 days.

Addressing separate news conferences in Islamabad and Peshawar, the PTI central and provincial leaders expressed concerns over the current situation, warning the rulers against constitutional violations and threatening to hold them responsible for treason.

PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry, flanked by Dr Shahbaz Gill and Hammad Azhar, said that the elections were the sole panacea to the prevailing problems currently confronting the country and those creating obstacles in holding the polls within 90 days, were violating the Constitution and would face Article 6.

He warned that the country could not afford confrontation and division, saying that it was high time to take confidence-building measures to help bridge the fast-widening gaps because the policy of arrests, coercions, threats and political victimisation was no more workable.

He warned that the use of power could further complicate the matter, fearing that efforts were afoot to destabilise Pakistan.

Fawad went on to say that the PTI did not want confrontation with the institutions because the government could not run without their support, but they just wanted that they should not support the “puppet, incompetent, inapt and crooked government” unnecessarily.

He said that the “imported government” compounded the miseries due to the runaway inflation and resurgence of terrorism.

“We want that the institutions should accept the supremacy of Constitution and law and should respect human rights and accept the public’s right to elect their leader through their power of votes,” he said.

“We brought the country back to tourism from terrorism,” he said.

On the occasion, Hammad said that the dollar’s free flight continued, and crossed the level of Rs270. He said that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) team was currently in Pakistan, warning of hyperinflation.

“The country needs political stability because it is directly proportioned to economic stability,” Hammad added.

Without elections, there can be no stability, hence elections should be conducted without any further delay to get the country out of the prevailing mess, he remarked.

On the occasion, Gill said that Imran had to go home after saying "absolutely not". Talking about Maryam Nawaz, Gill said that she returned to dent the PTI but instead put a crack within the PML-N, as “Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had to resign and Miftah Ismail would soon follow suit”.

Separately, the former ruling party’s K-P chapter also made it clear that the governor's consultation regarding the postponement of the provincial assembly was contrary to the Constitution and if elections were not held within 90 days, whoever was responsible would face Article 6.

Addressing a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, former governor Shah Farman and former ministers Shaukat Yousafzai and Timur Saleem Jhagra said that under Article 105 of the Constitution, the governor had to give a date for election within 90 days.

The governor could neither give a consultative opinion nor talk about consultation with the agencies, they added.

They said the governor was reneging on his oath, and he could not legally write such a letter.

The PTI leaders said that the Pakistan Democratic Movement government had neither money nor authority, rather they were fulfilling “foreign agendas”.