LAHORE, Dec 4 (EW): After Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan directed lawmakers to “start preparing for elections”, party leader Fawad Chaudhry revealed on Sunday that the party would first go for polls in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
Former prime minister Imran Khan had earlier asked his provincial legislators in K-P to start preparing for elections, saying, “we would dissolve the assemblies in K-P and Punjab this month.”
While addressing K-P lawmakers through a video link from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore on Saturday, the ousted premier lamented that the coalition government rejected his offer for talks.
“My offer was in good faith for the sake of our nation,” he said while referring to his earlier invitation to the government to hold talks for the next elections.
“We had conveyed to the government that if it was willing to hold talks on the date of the election then we would sit with them otherwise we will dissolve the assemblies very soon and head towards elections,” he warned.
Imran, however, did not give a date for the assemblies’ dissolution and only directed the lawmakers to go back to their constituencies and prepare for the elections.
“I had been empowered by the parliamentary parties to decide when to dissolve assemblies while both the chief ministers of K-P and Punjab extended their full support in this connection.”
In a tweet earlier today, PTI senior leader Fawad Chaudhry said on Imran’s advice party lawmakers are “preparing for elections”.
He added: “If PDM [Pakistan Democratic Movement] continues to run away from the elections the way it has been, then we will go for provincial elections in Punjab and K-P without wasting any more time and the National Assembly elections shall take place later”.
Both Punjab and the K-P government have expressed full support to Imran Khan in his decision to dissolve the provincial assemblies as well.
K-P government spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif said that the federal government was “caught in cyclone” adding that it had been “left with no other option apart from calling for fresh elections”.
“K-P Members of Assembly stand united with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan,” he said, “the assembly will be dissolved on Imran Khan’s orders”.
