PTI lawmakers ‘relieved’ as KP Assembly remains intact

PESHAWAR: As usual, the deadline set by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for dissolution of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab assemblies passed silently as none of the assemblies was dissolved on Friday.

The PTI chief had announced that both the provincial assemblies would be dissolved on December 23 and the party lawmakers would also quit the Sindh and Balochistan assemblies besides verifying their resignation from the National Assembly.

Like the previous deadlines for marching on Islamabad and besieging the federal capital, the one set for dissolving the KP and Punjab legislatures was also passed silently. Following Imran Khan’s announcement, the chief ministers of KP and Punjab had reiterated their resolve time and again to obey the direction of their leader and the party leaders and minister were also repeating their party chief’s promise of roll backing the governments in KP and Punjab.

However, lawmakers from the PTI heaved a sigh of relief while seeing silent passing of the deadline as majority of the ministers and MPAs were not happy with the decision, leaving their development schemes incomplete.

Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi had adopted the policy of run with the hare and hunt with the hounds from the very beginning as on the one hand he was assuring Imran Khan of obeying his directives but on the other hand he was advocating completing the government tenure.

The KP CM and his team were also trying to convince the party leadership for delay the dissolution process which was evident from their continuous inauguration of development projects. Though survival of the provincial assemblies was not unexpected as political pundits were predicting U-turn on Imran Khan’s announcement arguing the PTI could not afford to quit power.

In Punjab, the opposition’s no-confidence motion and governor’s denotifying Chief Minister Pervez Elahi and subsequent challenging the move in the Lahore High Court (LHC) provided an excuse to PTI but the situation in KP was totally different.

Neither there was any no-confidence motion against the CM nor any other hurdle as the party had two/thirds majority in the House and was not dependent on any ally. The chief minister and ministers have been publicly saying that fresh elections were the only solution to the political and economic crisis in the country but practically they were not ready for quitting the power.

On Friday too, Finance Minister Taimur Salim Jhagra said fresh polls were the only solution to the current crisis. Yesterday Minister for Higher Education Kamran Bangash and the provincial government spokesman Barrister Saif had also claimed there would be no delay even for a minute if Imran Khan ordered dissolution of the assembly, but at the same time they had pointed out dissolution of KP Assembly would have no impact if Punjab Assembly was not dissolved thus the development in Punjab provided an excuse to Mahmood Khan and his team.

Interestingly, the combined opposition in KP instead of submitting a no-trust motion, which definitely would have little chance of success, dared the government to dissolve the assembly. However, members from both the treasury and opposition heaved a sigh of relief as the deadline to send them home passed silently.