LAHORE: If the parliaments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are dissolved prematurely and snap elections are held, the new governments there will spend their entire term and the nation’s precious time justifying the need for the process, Khawaja Saad Rafique, minister for aviation, said Monday.
In a series of tweets, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MP said independent polls must be held for the sake of political stability. In an apparent reference to former prime minister Imran Khan, he said that instead of fearing disqualification and arrest, he should face the law.
“If you [think you] are on the right path, then what do you fear,” he asked.
ذاتی مفادات کیلئے اسممبلیاں توڑنا ڈکٹیٹرز کی روایت ھے
2 صوبائ اسمبلیاں توڑنے کا واحدمقصددباؤ بڑھا کرنااھلی اورگرفتاری سے بچنا ھے
فردواحد کی ضِد کے تابع 2 صوبائ اسملیاں کےانتخابات کرواۓ گئے تو
انکے نتائج متنازعہ ھی رھیں گے
نتیجۃً آمدہ عام انتخابات بھی متنازعہ بن جائینگے— Khawaja Saad Rafique (@KhSaad_Rafique) December 19, 2022
Rafique further said the dialogue with the political forces representing the parliament was the only option to resolve the current impasse, and noted it’s the tradition of dictators to dissolve legislatures for personal interests.
He claimed the sole purpose of dissolving the two provincial assemblies by asserting pressure was to avoid Khan’s feared disqualification and arrest. “If elections in the two assemblies are held under any pressure, the results will remain controversial. Resultantly, the result of general elections will also become controversial,” he maintained.
Khan has announced his party would dissolve two provincial assemblies it controls on Friday, earlier than scheduled, in an attempt to build pressure on the central government to hold early general elections.
The dissolutions could trigger a fresh constitutional crisis in the country.
Historically, polls for the federal and provincial governments are held at the same time in a general election every five years. If the two provincial assemblies are dissolved earlier, separate polls would have to be held for them within 90 days, which could throw up legal problems.
Khan, who was injured in an apparent assassination bid last month, said he was “sacrificing” his two provincial governments for the sake of the nation’s future.
