Pak: Weird thing that certain party gave date for election, says Bilawal Bhutto
Islamabad [Pakistan], September 14 (ANI): Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has mocked opposition party, saying that it is “really a weird thing that a certain party has given the date for the election,” Geo News reported.
His remarks came in the midst of the ongoing debate over when elections should be held, as political circles are still at odds about the election’s timetable.
President Arif Alvi, in response to his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) call, has suggested November 6 for holding the general election in the country, according to Geo News, a Pakistani news channel.
“Not me, chief election commissioner, or anyone knows when the polls would be held but this party knows that,” Bilawal said on Wednesday while addressing a political gathering in Muzaffargarh.
He added that any party cannot fix Pakistan’s problems on its own. “All parties will have to sit together to take the country out of crises.”
“The PPP is answerable for its ministries, and the PDM [Pakistan Democratic Movement] is accountable for its own,” Bilawal also said.
The PPP leader said that the PDM, the coalition of political parties, did not support a Charter of Democracy (CoD), when asked about bringing the PTI to the same table for political stability as it had been done in the past under a CoD.
He claimed that although his party wanted a new Charter of Democracy, it was not possible.
“As far as the PTI is concerned, those who were involved in the May 9 attacks, it is very difficult for us [to hold talks with them],” Bilawal said, adding, “An incompetent and ineligible prime minister was imposed due to which [country] had to face a crisis at the economic and foreign level,” as reported by Geo News.
Additionally, Bilawal informed his supporters that the PPP’s central executive committee (CEC) will meet tod (Thursday) to discuss elections.
The National Assembly was dissolved on August 9 by the coalition government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), along with the assemblies in Sindh and Balochistan, to enable the electoral body to hold elections in the nation within 90 days rather than 60 days if the legislature completed its constitutional term.
The deadline for the polls is November 9, 2023, if the elections are to be held within the 90-day window.
However, before dissolving the assemblies the coalition government in a Council of Common Interest (CCI) meeting had unanimously approved the 7th Population and Housing Census 2023.
The National Assembly seats to each province and the federal capital shall be allocated on the basis of population as per the new census, as stated in Article 51(5) of the Constitution.
Following CCI’s consent, the ECP on August 17 announced the schedule of new delimitations which exceeded the November 9th constitutional limit of 90 days, all but guaranteeing that the elections would likely take place after the 90-day threshold, Geo News reported.
