Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called a key meeting of the ruling partners today (Saturday) to devise a strategy to handle the ongoing political crisis and legal challenges.
Sources said the meeting would be held at the premier’s Model Town residence in Lahore, where the participants would be briefed on the elections’ delay case being heard by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
PM Shehbaz is expected to take the coalition partners into confidence over the prevalent political situation. The huddle comes a day after the top court rejected a petition filed by the coalition government seeking formation of a full court bench to hear the case regarding delay in elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Former prime minister Imran Khan’s party has challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order to put off the Punjab polls till Oct 8. The electoral body cited security and financial constraints as reasons to defer the elections.
Later, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Haji Ghulam Ali also asked the ECP to hold general elections in the province along with Punjab polls given the security situation in the province.
During Friday’s hearing, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial remarked that the proceedings could be halted temporarily if the government and the opposition engaged in dialogue. “We will play our constitutional role if dialogue is not held,” he said, adding: “Constitution is the spirit of democracy”.
The judges of the apex court were being targeted, the chief justice lamented. “We are showing tolerance but we will look into this matter”. “What I have done till today is aligned with Constitution,” he maintained.
At one point, the chief justice said he would hold some important meeting after the hearing and remarked that there would be new dawn of hope on Monday.
The apex court has also summoned secretaries of interior and finance on April 3 (Monday) after it turned down a government’s plea for constitution of the full bench.
When Attorney General Usman Mansoor Awan again pleaded the court to form a full bench to hear the case, the CJP remarked that certain factors had to be reviewed before constituting the full bench as sometimes there were issues regarding availability of all judges. “We also don’t want to affect the proceedings of other cases pending with the apex court,” he said.
The attorney general also told the SC that Pakistan was facing a deficit of billions of rupees and it was difficult to go for elections in these trying times. He came up with the argument on why the finance ministry had refused to provide funds to the ECP for elections. He also claimed that the interest rate was expected to rise to 22 per cent, which would further increase the country’s debt.
