Political activities heat up on eve of SC deadline

ISLAMABAD:

As the Supreme Court’s week-long deadline to the political parties to evolve a consensus on the date for holding simultaneous general elections to the national and the four provincial assemblies entered its last day without the stakeholders yet sitting at the negotiation table, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has summoned separate meetings of the federal cabinet and PML-N parliamentary party on Wednesday (today) to mull over the matter.

The premier has also called the parliamentary leaders of the allied parties to deliberate on the issue.

Adopting a carrot and stick policy, the Supreme Court had asked all political parties to expeditiously decide the date for general elections on April 20 as otherwise the court’s order in connection with the Punjab Assembly polls on May 14 would come into force.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial,  Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar, had sought a progress report on April 27, as the court was informed that the political leaders were set to meet on April 26 -- just a day before the deadline expired -- to deliberate on the matter.

At a time when the country was going through political and legal impasse, the political parties did not show any urgency and sought a recess on account of Eidul Fitr holidays on the last date of hearing, which was granted by the apex court.

However, no meeting took place between the government and PTI during the Eid holidays.

PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry told The Express Tribune that the government’s conduct so far depicted that it did not even recognise the SC.

He added that keeping the government’s attitude in view, no meeting was possible with it.

The PTI’s former information minister maintained until now, the government had taken an aggressive position before the media and outside the courtroom.

However, he claimed that the government took an altogether different position inside the courtroom.

Fawad said the top court had so far taken a lenient view of the government’s conduct and has not initiated contempt proceedings.

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However, he added that on April 27, he believed the SC would move towards taking some stringent actions because if its order was not implemented, it would simply become redundant.

Fawad further maintained that the lack of implementation of the top court’s order would mean that “the judicial organ of the State has ceased to exist.”

Fawad’s statement is in line with the only other member of the PTI’s two-person committee tasked to hold talks with the ruling alliance, the party’s vice chairman, Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

A day earlier, Qureshi had also told The Express Tribune that the government was busy creating a smokescreen over talks, saying the government’s attitude was not serious as no one from the PML-N or the ruling alliance approached him or Fawad for holding negotiations.

The PTI leaders’ comments came after two PML-N leaders, Saad Rafique and Ayaz Sadiq, approached PTI’s former National Assembly speaker, Asad Qaiser, after the court’s proposal to reach a consensus on the elections date.

However, Qureshi said they had reached out to someone, who was not even tasked with the responsibility of holding talks as PTI Chairman Imran Khan nominated him and Fawad for this purpose.

To discuss the matter, PM Shehbaz has called meetings of the federal cabinet and the PML-N parliamentary party separately on Wednesday.

The cabinet meeting will mull over the matters related to elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and discuss the overall political situation in the country.

It will also deliberate on the consultation process with the political parties on important issues.

Later, a PML-N parliamentary party session will be held at the Parliament House chaired by the premier.

A meeting of the parliamentary leaders of the government's allied parties will also be held at noon at the Prime Minister House.

The premier will host a dinner in the wake of Eidul Fitr in the honour of the members of the allied parties at 7pm on Wednesday.

Separately, the ruling PML-N and PTI leaders on Tuesday agreed that the restoration of the Punjab and K-P assemblies would pave the way for talks between them.

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PML-N leaders Khawaja Saad Rafique and Ayaz Sadiq arrived at former K-P chief minister Pervaiz Khattak’s residence to condole with him over his wife’s death and met other PTI leaders.

The PML-N leaders hugged PTI's Chaudhry Parvez Elahi as they agreed with him on finding a solution to the prevailing political crisis.

They maintained that the restoration of Punjab and K-P assemblies would pave the way for negotiations between them.

The country has been embroiled in political, economic and constitutional crises ever since the PTI chairman dissolved the Punjab and K-P assemblies in January this year in an attempt to force snap polls on the PML-N-led ruling alliance.

Though Imran has not succeeded yet, the matter ended up before the country’s top court, which has constantly been pushing for holding elections within 90-day constitutional period following the dissolution of the provincial assemblies.

The court had also swung into action after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had postponed elections in Punjab from April 30 to October 8 on account of lack of funds and security, among other things.

Subsequently, the court had ordered to hold elections in Punjab on May 14 as its order was still in field.

However, the political battle continued before the judicial organ of the state and, on April 20, the court while allowing the political parties to evolve a consensus on an elections date across the country conveyed that it would not backtrack on its May 14 date.

For political parties, April 26 is the last day for developing the consensus as the court is set to take up the matter on April 27.

Information and law ministers were asked if the political parties were trying to reach a consensus on the elections date when they had not even met yet and if the SC was likely to initiate contempt proceedings after the deadline expired without yielding any fruitful results.

They did not respond till the filing of this report.