Pakistan will not conduct elections before 2023, and Imran Khan has warned against 'gravedigging'
Key Takeaways:
- Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has called for quick elections, which the Pakistani government, led by Shehbaz Sharif, has rejected.
- After losing a no-confidence vote last month, Khan was forced to quit as Prime Minister, and opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif took control.
The Pakistani government, led by Shehbaz Sharif, has rejected Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) calls for immediate elections. According to a report in Pakistan's Express Tribune citing sources, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) indicated elections would be held only in August 2023, after the government's term ends.
According to the Tribune, allies of the ruling PML-N argued that holding early elections is not viable because the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has already established dates for a delimitation process to be finished by August.
According to the report, Sharif will convene a meeting of the coalition government on Wednesday to deliberate on a strategy for the next general election.
The declaration comes in response to Imran Khan's ongoing call for new national elections following his and his PTI party's stunning removal from power last month. On Wednesday, the PTI chief is slated to lead a protest march to Islamabad's capital to oppose the Shehbaz Sharif govt and demand that the National Assembly be dissolved.
After his party's core committee meeting in Peshawar, Khan urged supporters to "join the protest in huge numbers." On the Srinagar highway, he would encounter demonstrators.
However, according to Pakistani media, the authorities will not allow Imran Khan to hold a rally there. According to reports, the PTI would be given an open field instead.
According to the Express Tribune, Pakistani interior minister Rana Sanaullah advised Khan against causing a law-and-order problem, saying that "justice will take its course if he tries to be the gravedigger of democracy even during the march."
Pakistan's most recent general election was held in July 2018, with Imran Khan's PTI winning.
Khan was forced to resign as Prime Minister after losing a no-confidence vote last month, and opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif took over as Prime Minister.