The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday announced it will commence the process to dissolve the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday, stressing this was in line with the instructions of party chief Imran Khan.
In a posting on Twitter, KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan said he would forward to Governor Haji Ghulam Ali the summary for the dissolution of the provincial assembly on Tuesday “in line with the orders of PTI chief Imran Khan.” He went on to say that “God willing, the Tehreek-e-Insaf will return to government [in KP] with a two-thirds majority.”
The summary to dissolve the KP Assembly will be sent under Article 112 of the Constitution and follows the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly on Jan. 14. The governor will have 48 hours to sign his approval for the dissolution but, whether or not he approves it, the legislative will automatically stand dissolved after that span, or some time on Thursday.
Speaking with Geo News after the announcement, the governor said he would follow the Constitution after he had received the summary for the KP Assembly’s dissolution.
Last week, nearly two months after Imran Khan announced he would dissolve both the KP and Punjab assemblies in a bid to trigger early general elections, Punjab C.M. Parvez Elahi formally forwarded a summary for his legislative’s dissolution to Governor Balighur Rehman. While Rehman confirmed its receipt, he refused to sign it, and the assembly was automatically dissolved on Saturday night.
But while PTI lawmakers have publicly expressed confidence in Khan’s move, they have repeatedly voiced concerns over it in private, stressing that dissolving the assemblies as this stage is not in the interest of either the party or the nation.
In Punjab, the process for the establishment of a caretaker setup to oversee elections has already begun, and it is expected that KP would follow in the coming week. However, amidst the political polarization nationwide, it is unlikely that Elahi and opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz would be able to settle on a compromise candidate for interim chief minister. In this scenario, the speaker will form a committee comprising six members of the outgoing assembly with equal representation from the treasury and the opposition.
If the committee also cannot evolve consensus within three days, all nominees would be referred to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which would choose one of the candidates within two days. The interim chief minister would then induct an interim cabinet, which would have up to 90 days during which the ECP is bound to carry out general elections.