Election crisis: PTI’s main concern is upcoming budget

Insiders term Friday’s round crucial for a breakthrough

ISLAMABAD:

Leaders belonging to the ruling coalition and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have finally sat across the table from each other for the first time to evolve a consensus on holding elections for the provincial legislatures and the National Assembly on the same day.

“However, in the first meeting both sides just tried to evaluate how serious is the other party in holding dialogues,” said one of the participants of the meeting.  The next meeting will be crucial wherein proposals will be shared about the holding of general elections on one date.

It is learnt that the government side will add a couple of more members in the committee.

Presence of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the committee is very significant as he is regarded as a close aide of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, said a senior PTI lawyer.

He said that the government would share its proposals today (Friday).

A member of the cabinet hoped that the PTI would agree on holding general elections in October as it fears that elections might be delayed for one year.

Some political analysts said the two sides--the government and the PTI--will respectively protect the interests of the establishment and the judiciary during dialogue.

They said there is mistrust between “powerful circles” and PTI chief Imran Khan since the ouster of the PTI government in April last year. In the prevailing situation, the PML-N led federal government will take care of the establishment’s interests during dialogue.

On the other hand, the PTI will try to protect the interest of one section of the judiciary which has been giving relief to the party leaders since 2017 when the Panama Papers scandal emerged.

The PTI members will insist that elections should be held in July/August before the retirement of incumbent Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, they claimed.

A senior PTI leader, however, said they are not concerned about whether the elections are held during the term of the incumbent CJP.

“This is not the PTI’s concern. The real issue is the upcoming annual budget. We want the budget to be presented by a caretaker government or a new government as the present rulers want to present a political budget for the next year which will be disastrous for the country.

“Even the IMF [International Monetary Fund] is also waiting for the next budget. If the government introduced a political budget then the IMF will not give us laon,” he said

He said the PTI has asked the government to share its plan as to how it wants to run the country.

“Presently, we want elections in the month of July while the government wants elections in October. We have asked the government to tell us on Friday [today] how much flexibility they can show with regard to election date,” he said.

Judicial politics

The effect of “judicial politics” on national politics cannot be ruled out.  Appointment of two Supreme Court judges has been delayed for the last several months.

Likewise, the relationship between one section of judges and incoming CJP Justice Qazi Faez Isa is also not cordial. There is mistrust between them.
Sanity demands that a dialogue should also be initiated within the SC. In fact, serious efforts are under way to evolve some consensus within SC on the working of the court. Currently judicial politics and national politics are interlinked. Every judge has own interpretation of the Constitution.

It is witnessed that unlike the previous hearings, CJP Bandial on Thursday struck a conciliatory tone. The credit of the ongoing dialogue also goes to Justice Bandial, who is regarded as soft spoken.

CJP Bandial has so far not initiated contempt proceedings against any political leader, journalist or lawyer during his tenure. He is also showing restraint in issuing contempt notices to government functionaries over violation of a judicial order to hold elections for the Punjab Assembly on May 14.