KARACHI: PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry has warned the government to announce general elections by December 20, otherwise Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assemblies will be dissolved.

The plan to dissolve Punjab and KP — the two provinces where the PTI is in power — assemblies was announced by party’s chairman Imran Khan in his address to a public meeting in Rawalpindi last month.

“If PDM doesn’t put forward a final formula for general elections by Dec 20, then Punjab and KP assemblies will be dissolved,” he said in a series of tweets on Sunday.

He added in that case, the process of general elections will be completed in the two provinces by March 20.

Fawad says ‘imported government’ doesn’t know how to run the country

“The leaders of the imported government don’t want [to hold] elections but they don’t know how to run the country,” said Mr Chaudhry “Countries are not run by appointing ministers and doing foreign trips. This is a complicated and difficult endeavour for which these rules lack capability.”

Referring to the Pakistan Democratic Movement, a multi-party ruling coalition at the Centre, he added the country needed political stability which was not possible without a stable government.

“We have the complete support of our allies in this matter.”

The PTI has a majority government in KP; however, in Punjab, the party was holding power in coalition with the PML-Q.

According to reports, the PML-Q was still ambivalent about the idea and even though the party publicly continued to stand by the PTI chairman’s stance, it has also cautioned him to be prudent in his appraisal of the current political situation before sealing the assembly’s fate.

Moonis Elahi, PML-Q leader and son of Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi, told Dawn on Saturday that his party was “whole-heartedly” behind Mr Khan’s plan. But he also advised him to “be mindful of the fact that the PML-N’s coalition government should not be able to delay the elections through technicalities” as that could make things difficult for both parties once they are out of power in the two provinces.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2022