Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday announced that his party will dissolve the assemblies in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Dec. 23, claiming this will push the entire country toward early elections.
Addressing PTI rallies via video-link—and flanked by Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan—Khan claimed the decision to dissolve the assemblies had been taken after consultations with lawyers, adding that the Constitution did not allow elections to be delayed more than 90 days after an assembly’s dissolution.
Maintaining that the PTI would proceed to an election campaign after dissolving the assemblies, the ousted prime minister said plans were also underway to get the National Assembly speaker to accept the resignations of PTI lawmakers, as this would mean over 60 percent of constituencies would be vacant and it would not make much sense to try to fill them through by-elections.
Perhaps recognizing a visible decline in the enthusiasm of PTI supporters attending his rallies, Khan urged them to not become disappointed, claiming this was akin to “running away from our duty to society.” Urging his supporters to defeat the incumbent government through elections to “wipe them” from politics, he said the time had come for the country to take “tough decisions” related to “restructuring institutions” and establishing the rule of law.
During his nearly hour-long speech, Khan reiterated claims that he wanted early elections in the national interest rather than personal ego. Summarizing the prevailing economic situation, he claimed the ruling coalition had damaged his government’s progress and lamented the “brain drain” of skilled people leaving the country—despite his government hailing the same development under its rule as a major “achievement.”
Lamenting that unemployment and inflation were rising while investments were drying up, he claimed the government did not have any plan to counter this trend and reiterated that fresh elections were the only solution but the government did not want this as it feared losing the polls. He claimed that there was concerns the government might attempt to delay elections beyond October 2023.
Former Army chief
The PTI chief spent a significant chunk of his speech questioning how the country had reached this point. “Only one man is responsible: General (retd.) [Qamar Javed] Bajwa. I didn’t speak out against him when he was the Army chief,” he said, claiming that would have damaged the Army. However, he claimed, Bajwa had “decided to remove us [PTI],” further alleging that the military had subjected the PTI to “injustice” in the months since its ouster.
“I was told at one point by Gen Bajwa that ‘we have files on your people about corruption and their videos have been made.’ I said to him, ‘Is this the job of our agencies? That they make videos and files on people? This nation sustains its agencies for their security by sacrificing.’”