Awami Muslim League President Sheikh Rashid Ahmed — an ally of the PTI that has resolved to dissolve assemblies in the provinces where it is in power— said on Wednesday that the fate of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies would be decided in a week.
The former interior minister’s statement came in a tweet, in which he also criticised the government over the country’s economic situation.
“Today is the first day of the rescue operation. Institutions staying away from politics is praiseworthy, but institutions also cannot remain distant from their people,” Ahmed added, in an apparent reference to the army whose command was taken over by new Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir yesterday.
“A decision on two provincial assemblies will be made within a week,” he added.
Ahmed’s statement has come a day after former prime minister Imran Khan-led PTI, which has been demanding immediate elections since the party chief’s ouster as the prime minister in April through a no-confidence, confirmed its decision to dissolve the two assemblies on Monday.
There has been no corroboration of Ahmed’s statement by the PTI yet.
The possible dissolution of the two assemblies was first announced by Imran on Saturday at a rally in Rawalpindi, marking the end of his party’s month-long protest march carried out by the PTI to build pressure on the government for early elections.
On the occasion, Imran had said his party would be quitting all assemblies and opting out of the “current corrupt political system”.
Following the PTI’s announcement, opposition parties in both provinces have stepped up efforts to avert the intended move, with reports saying that options of a no-confidence motion and governor’s rule are on the table.
The PML-N’s parliamentary party in Punjab decided in principle on Monday to use all ‘available tactics’ to foil the PTI’s proposed plan and discussed the prospects of tabling a no-trust move against Chief Minister Parvez Elahi, imposition of governor’s rule and the governor seeking a vote of confidence from the CM.
The participants of the meeting also discussed approaching the Supreme Court with a request to take up Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Hamza Shehbaz’s review petition on its July decision that declared Elahi as the provincial chief executive.
