PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry on Thursday urged the judiciary to operate “independently” as he raised concerns over the widening distance between the institutions and the public.

“We believe that our court should take decisions independently, especially in the Arshad Sharif case […] the expectations we have from the judicial system […] the independent decisions we are expecting from them […] we don’t see it happening,” he said in a media talk in Lahore.

The former information minister said that the treatment of his party — a reference to the arrest of party senator Azam Swati — over the last few months was a cause of concern to the party.

“Because of this, we can feel a distance between the institutions of Pakistan and the public. PTI is the only political party in the country […] Imran Khan is the only […] that plays the role of a bridge between the state and the nation […] and it is important that this role should be accepted.”

Chaudhry went on to claim that the establishment was “bearing the burden of the political corpses of Asif Ali Zardari, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Nawaz Sharif”.

“And we are seeing that the establishment has not yet gotten rid of this burden. We can see that the establishment has not yet become apolitical,” he added.

The PTI leader said that his party wanted to make Pakistan a democratic state where all the powerful institutions “accept the will and choice of the public”.

“Our politics is among the people and only the people will lead it.”

‘KP, Punjab assemblies to be dissolved in December’

At the outset of the media talk, Chaudhry said party chief Imran Khan had been holding discussions with PTI lawmakers in Punjab and everyone was on one page regarding the decision to dissolve assemblies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

Last month, Imran announced that his party would disassociate itself from the “current corrupt political system” by quitting the assemblies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

However, in an interview with Bol News earlier this week, the PTI chief said that he may delay the dissolution of Punjab and KP assemblies if political players agreed to come to the table and decide that the general election would be called maximum by the end of next March.

While the former prime minister is determined to dissolve assemblies, Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi — who is in power in the province due to the support of PTI — has said that the provincial assembly will “continue the same way for the next four months till March”.

In his media talk today, Chaudhry said that PTI had conveyed its decision to PML-Q. “We have told them that assemblies would be dissolved in December at any cost.”

He reiterated that the PML-Q had been backing PTI even today. “Moonis sahab has a very clear narrative that he would support Imran Khan and that means he would have to dissolve assemblies.”

Meanwhile, in response to a question on talks with the government, Chaudhry said that whether the communication was held via backdoors or in front of anyone, “we have just one demand and that is free and fair elections”.

He also stated that even if coalition leaders refused to hold elections, “we will have new governments in KP and Punjab by March”.