ISLAMABAD: As Defence Minis­ter Khawaja Mohammad Asif in a recent interview hinted at early elections, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has established an election analysis cell (EAC) to allot tickets to aspiring candidates for general election.

Headed by Riaz Fatyana, the EAC will provide an independent analysis on the recommendations submitted by provincial parliamentary boards to the central parliamentary board for final decision making regarding the award of PTI tickets. EAC members include Malik Aamir Dogar, Saleh Mohammad Khan, Junaid Akbar, Firdous Shamim Naqvi, Amir Bakhsh Bhutto, Niamat Zehra, Syed Zahoor Agha, Rai Azizullah and Mian Mahmood-ur-Rashid.

A notification issued by PTI leader Asad Umar stated the EAC should not be authorised to make any decision in this regard and the final decision about tickets should rest with the central parliamentary board.

Also, PTI leader Shafqat Mehmood demanded early general election. However, in reply to a question, he said the PTI had no trust in Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.

He said efforts were being made to run the economy from the UK but the incumbent government would not succeed. Also, Shahbaz Gill alleged that a person sitting in London [Nawaz Sharif] was “holding meetings with Israelis”. Mr Gill demanded that elections be held at the earliest.

Trade with India

Mr Mehmood alleged that the government was going to resume trade with India. “We had suspended trade and linked it with the issue of illegal annexation of Occupied Kashmir with India. The outgoing government should not take such steps which are directly linked with national interest,” he said.

PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a presser that the government was going to resume trade with India and said it would be unfair to take such decision without taking the Kashmiris on board.

The former foreign minister alleged that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had ordered the authorities concerned to appoint trade officers in Pakistan’s High Commission in India. He said the same matter was raised during a cabinet meeting while the PTI was in power, but it decided to reject the proposal.

Mr Qureshi expressed surprise as to how Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari did not give any statement over the development. He said the decision had hurt the feelings of people of Kashmir and demanded that the decision be withdrawn immediately. “India had abolished the special status of Kashmir in August 2019 in violation of the United Nations’ resolutions and we had decided to suspend the trade with neighbouring country,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2022