Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to get its order of April 04 implemented in letter and spirit wherein Election Commission of Pakistan has been directed to conduct general elections for Punjab Assembly on May 14 this year.
Filing a concise statement before the top court on Wednesday Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s three-member committee, which was formed to hold a dialogue with the government over the issue of elections and other relevant matters, apprised that consultative process in the matter remained fruitless.
According to a 4-page copy of the concise statement available with TLTP, the three-member panel comprising PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, vice president Fawad Chaudhry and Senator Barrister Ali Zafar filed concise statements before the SC.
They said that parties consisting of PDM/alliance, other than JUI-F, namely PPP, PML(N), MQM-Pakistan, PML-Q and others constituted a Committee comprising of inter alia the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Yousaf Raza Gilani, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar and others.
They submitted that members of both the teams (PTI and PDM/alliance) deliberated and held a dialogue with full sincerity on April 27, 28 and May 02, 2023. They submitted that parties arrived at certain consensus among others that the dialogue shall not be used as a delaying tactic and is without prejudice to and has no bearing on the judgement of the Supreme Court of Pakistan of April 04, 2023 about election to the Punjab Assembly to be held on May 14 until and unless an agreement within the confines of the Constitution is arrived at between the parties and such agreement is implemented.
All the three PTI members further submitted that after full deliberations, PTI gave a proposal to PDM/alliance that PTI is willing to hold the elections to the National Assembly and all Provincial Assemblies on the same date subject to and conditional upon the following: – (i) National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan be dissolved on or before 14th May, 2023; (ii) The elections to the National Assembly as well as to the Provincial Assemblies of Sindh, Punjab, KPK and Balochistan be held together within 60 days of the dissolution of the National and Provincial Assemblies i.e. in the second week of July, 2023; (iii) In order to give a Constitutional cover to the holding of the elections to the Provincial Assemblies of Punjab and KPK beyond the period of 90 days, the members of the National Assembly belonging to PTI will rejoin the National Assembly and a one-time constitutional amendment validating the delay in elections beyond the period of 90 days for Punjab and KPK Assemblies shall be carried out by mutual consent of the political parties; (iv) All the parties shall agree that the election results shall be accepted as a whole subject to individual grievances in accordance with law; and (v) An Agreement in writing to the above effect shall be submitted before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Pakistan in order to ensure that the implementation of the Agreement is complied with by the parties in letter and spirit.
Urging the top court for Punjab Assembly election on May 14 the PTI team said in its concise statement that PDM/alliance however did not agree with this proposal. “Instead, they have proposed that the dissolution of the National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan shall take place on the 30th of July, 2023 and elections be held in 90 days thereafter i.e. the first week of October 2023 for the National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, KPK and Balochistan together. There is also a lack of consensus between the parties in relation to the process for the implementation of the Agreement, namely through the constitutional amendment”, the PTI leaders submitted.
Finally they said in the prayer of the concise statement, “In view of the aforesaid, in spite of the best efforts of parties, no solution within the Constitution could be arrived at and hence the above submitted to this Hon’ble Court. It is accordingly prayed that the judgement dated 04.04.2023 passed in Constitution Petition No.5 of 2023 requiring elections to be held to the Punjab Assembly on 14.05.2023 may be implemented in letter and spirit so that the Constitution is upheld and does not stand violated, and this petition may be disposed off accordingly”.
