Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif to advise President to dissolve Parliament

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said late on Wednesday that he will advise the President to dissolve Parliament.

The move sets the stage for a national election as the country grapples with political and economic crises. Parliament’s five-year term is due to expire on Aug 12, but the move would dissolve it three days early.

“I will send an advice tonight to the President to dissolve Parliament,” the premier said.

Mr Sharif’s recommendation has to be endorsed by President Arif Alvi, and the election has to be held within 90 days under the supervision of a caretaker government.

The election is likely to exclude the country’s most popular politician, Imran Khan. Pakistan has been in political turmoil since the former international cricket star

was booted from power in April 2022.

Last Saturday,

he was jailed

for graft following a months-long crackdown on his party.

Prior to his announcement, Mr Sharif addressed the last session of the National Assembly before the end of his government’s tenure, Pakistani media reported.

He thanked lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for showing confidence in him. He also said his government faced many challenges and difficulties during its 16-month tenure.

By law, the election has to be held within 90 days of Parliament’s dissolution, but the outgoing government has already warned that it is likely to be delayed.

The unlikely coalition between the country’s usually feuding dynastic parties – which came together to kick out Khan – has won little popular support during its 18 months at the helm.

The economy is still in the doldrums despite

a new International Monetary Fund bailout.

The country is facing a crippling foreign debt, soaring inflation and widespread unemployment from factories made idle because they lacked foreign currency to buy raw materials.

Mr Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, president of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency think-tank, said: “Economic decisions are invariably tough and often unpopular, requiring a government with a longer tenure to effectively implement them.

“This election holds significance as it will result in a five-year term for a new government, which ideally should be empowered to make essential decisions vital for economic recovery.”

Question mark over election date

There has been speculation for months that the polls could be delayed as the establishment grapples to stabilise the country, which is facing overlapping security, economic and political crises.

In addition, data from the latest census carried out in May was finally published at the weekend.

The government then said the election commission needs time to redraw constituency boundaries – a sore point for several political parties.

Mr Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre, told AFP that any delay could give time to the main coalition partners – the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party – to figure out how to address the challenge of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

“But in reality, delaying the election could simply anger the public more and galvanise an opposition that has already suffered through months of crackdowns,” he said.

Behind any election in Pakistan lurks the military, which has staged at least three successful coups since the country was forged from the partition of British-ruled India in 1947.

Khan enjoyed genuine widespread support when he came to power in 2018. But analysts say it was only with the blessing of the country’s powerful generals, who he reportedly fell out with in the months before he was ousted. He later waged a risky campaign of defiance against the military. He accused them of meddling in politics and even named an intelligence officer as being behind an assassination attempt that saw him get shot in the leg last November.

Khan also heaped pressure on the government to hold early elections by staging mass rallies and pulling his MPs from Parliament, but, ultimately, his gambit failed.

Khan crackdown

The ousted premier, who has been hit with more than 200 legal cases in recent months, has said that the charges against him are politically motivated and designed to prevent him from contesting elections.

His first arrest and brief detention in May

sparked days of sometimes-violent protest

s, with unprecedented anger directed towards the military. The protests were met with a fierce crackdown that crushed his street power.

Thousands of his supporters were rounded up – some still in jail to face a military court – and most of the party’s leaders were arrested or forced underground.

Mr Kugelman said the interim government faces a tough task in the months ahead.

“Ultimately, the biggest challenge will be for the caretaker administration to stay above the partisan fray and not be dragged into the political battles being waged between the politicians and the military,” he said.

“It is, after all, a hyper-partisan and hyper-polarised moment – not an easy environment for an apolitical caretaker to navigate.” REUTERS, AFP