PPP opposes polls beyond October

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was busy convincing the allied parties in the government on Monday that the general elections in the country shouldn’t be delayed beyond October amid rumours that the elections might not be held even in that month.

Sources in the ruling alliance revealed that the key government ally planned to meet the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership once it got green signal from the coalition partners that they had reached the consensus that the elections would not be delayed any further.

Apart from political and legal issues, the sources said, that the PPP swung into action after the questions about the timing of the general elections started taking rounds and became a cause of concern among the diplomatic circles as well.

They said that the diplomats and foreign delegation frequently enquired about the elections’ timing in their official meetings and social gathering with the high-ups of the government, saying that “trade and a lot more depends on holding elections amid high political temperature and rumours that polls might get delayed even after October.”

Recently, PTI Chairman and former premier Imran Khan had expressed his fears that the elections might not be held even in October this year. “I fear that they [the ruling coalition] might not hold elections in October; they will take elections to October if Imran Khan is in jail, or eliminated” or the party leadership is arrested and put into jails.

Imran had questioned the holding of elections in October, asking “give me just one reason what benefit will Pakistan get by the polls in October”. He recalled that a dictator had continued ruling the country for 11 years after promising the election in 90 days.

In an attempt to bring all the allies and opposition parties to the negotiating table and to convince them to stand united on not delaying the elections, the PPP had constituted a three-member committee tasked with persuading political friends and foes to reach on a broader consensus regarding elections.

The committee comprises Yousaf Raza Gilani, Syed Naveed Qamar and Qamar Zaman Kaira to persuade allies as well as the PTI to sit together for talks so that the dust surrounding the general elections could be settled.

The PPP leader’s aim to convince the allies first and then reach out to the opposition parties is in line with a statement of PPP Parliamentarian (PPPP) President Asif Zardari, who said the other day that delaying elections beyond October would be “foolish”.

Read Those who reject dialogue same as Imran: PPP

The three-member PPP committee spent a busy evening on Monday as it met leaders of four different parties – the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Awami National Party (ANP), the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q).

In his media talk after the meeting with PML-N leadership, Gilani said that the parties were sitting together to avoid collision among the institutions, adding that the Constitution drew clear lines among the three pillars of the state: legislature, judiciary and executive.

Senator Gilani said that the principle of trichotomy of powers aimed at non-interference in other’s domains. “There will be no collision when all institutions work within their constitutional boundaries,” he said.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah lauded the PPP’s initiative of reaching out to the parties. He said that PML-N avoided dialogue on some occasions because the PTI would rebuke the offer, use foul language and say that the party didn’t want to sit with the ruling party.

Rana admitted that the current situation demanded that the political parties should engage in dialogue to take the country out of the prevailing crises.

It all started after Imran had dissolved Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) assemblies in January. Imran’s aim was to force general elections on the federal government as traditionally elections were held simultaneously in the country and, he had envisaged that his move would compel the federal government to call snap polls.

However, it didn’t happen and only led to creating a constitutional crisis in the country, which ultimately involved the Supreme Court in the matter. The Constitution says that elections must be held in 90 days of the dissolution of an assembly.

However, the poll body had delayed elections to October after initially announcing April 30 as polls date in Punjab. The move forced the PTI to approach the top court and the matter is being adjudicated till now.

The members of the PPP committee were approached for their comments on what was the party trying to achieve through talks; what’s the ultimate objective; how would it be achieved and why the PPP took the decision to keep the door of negotiations open but they didn’t reply.