The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday said that in case of dissolution of provincial assemblies, elections will be held in the respective provinces and not for the National Assembly.
The statement has come after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Saturday announced the party’s decision to resign from provincial assemblies, most notably in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) where the party is in government, in a bid to place pressure on the federal government to announce an early election date.
Without sharing further details of his decision, Imran said that he would soon be meeting his chief ministers and the parliamentary party about the matter and would soon make the announcement about when the party would leave the assemblies.
The ECP officials have clarified that should assemblies be dissolved, provincial elections will be organised within 60 days.
The officials also revealed that for each provincial poll, an estimated cost of Rs50 to Rs70 million will be incurred, with a total projected cost of elections in Punjab and K-P amounting to Rs22.5 billion.
It may be noted here that in case the assemblies in the two provinces are dissolved, the ECP will be responsible for administering polls in over 400 constituencies.
“Although it is difficult to hold provincial elections and national elections in the same year, we are bound by the law,” the ECP officials added.
“Delimitation of constituencies and conducting local body elections was also a mammoth task,” the ECP said, “however we held those. In that same vein, elections will be held as per the law even if it is difficult”.
Senior leaders of the PTI are expected to converge on Monday (today) to discuss the date for the dissolution of the K-P and Punjab assemblies.
The government ministers, however, see Imran’s announcement of dissolving or abandoning the assemblies as a face-saving attempt when he could not muster “revolution crowds”.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, on the other hand, said that it was not possible for PTI to dissolve legislative assemblies including ones in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, saying no-trust motion can be moved at any time.
Meanwhile, the opposition in the K-P Assembly has decided to take all constitutional and legal means, including a no-confidence motion against the chief minister, to prevent the dissolution of the assembly.
