Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Thursday announced the party will launch a new countrywide protest movement against rampant inflation from tomorrow (Friday) in yet another bid to pressure the ruling coalition into early elections.
“From tomorrow, countrywide protests will start against rising inflation, the deteriorating economy, and shortage of gas,” he told journalists in Lahore after meeting of the party leadership at Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence. He said the first three weeks of the protest would be led by PTI lawmakers in their constituencies, adding that Khan would personally join the campaign at that point.
“This process will continue till this government is ousted,” he added, while urging the public to support the party’s demands. The latest announcement of the PTI appears to be an attempt at a “reset,” though observers maintain that it is unlikely to find much success until Khan becomes actively involved after the stated three weeks.
The PTI has been struggling to provide a new narrative for early elections since its plans to dissolve the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies under its control were blocked by the Punjab governor seeking a vote of confidence from Chief Minister Parvez Elahi. Despite maintaining that it has the numbers to ensure Elahi’s victory, the PTI has yet to call the vote. Meanwhile, the chief minister has been barred from dissolving the assembly until Jan. 11, when the Lahore High Court will resume hearings to decide whether the governor’s de-notifying of Elahi over his failure to secure a vote of confidence has legal standing.
While the PTI faces no such hurdles in dissolving the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, it has linked it to the Punjab, claiming this would be the only way for the measure to have any “impact.” The federal government, however, maintains that Parliament will complete its constitutional term and rubbished the PTI’s demands for early elections, urging the party to instead return to the National Assembly and sit with the government to enact necessary reforms ahead of polls.
During his press conference, Fawad alleged that the opposition in Punjab was attempting to “bribe” PTI lawmakers into not participating in the vote of confidence—though as usual he did not provide any proof of his claims.
Resignations and technocrats
The PTI leader also addressed rumors of plans to impose an extended technocratic government, stressing that the PTI would not tolerate any such steps. Reiterating that the “only solution” to the crises facing Pakistan was early elections, he maintained that the Pakistani people would never tolerate any technocrat government. “Nawaz Sharif wanted the imposition of martial law, but Imran Khan prevented this,” he alleged, without any further clarification.
On the issue of National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf seeking individual verifications from PTI lawmakers who have resigned from the National Assembly, Fawad said the party had resigned en masse and its resignations should also be collectively accepted. “We will not submit the resignations individually,” he said, noting that the speaker had already accepted the resignations of 11 lawmakers without individual verifications. He said if the speaker did not accept the resignations, the PTI would approach the Supreme Court.