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PML-N leader Malik Ahmed Khan on Tuesday accused former prime minister Imran Khan of wanting to “alter the election cycle” of the country by attempting to force elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before general elections — something he deemed a “flawed scheme”.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Malik Ahmed explained why holding national and provincial assemblies’ elections — which have traditionally been staged in tandem — separately would be a bad idea.
He said the Constitution clearly states that a caretaker government must be in place for elections. “When elections in two provinces will be carried out, the federal government will still be intact and then questions will be raised over the impartiality of the elections,” he added.
The PML-N leader said the election cycle Imran wanted to bring in would have two freshly elected provincial assemblies in place during the National Assembly elections.
He said that if provincial and general elections were to be allowed to be held separately, it would break the election cycle forever, with the new arrangement seeing the provincial assemblies influencing NA polls.
“How will there be fair and free elections this way as mandated in the Constitution?” the PML-N leader asked as he alleged that “you (Imran) have gone crazy in the lust for power.
He accused Imran of being “two-faced” when dealing with constitutional matters, and recalled how the PTI chief had “violated” the Constitution by sending a summary to the President for the dissolution of the National Assembly despite knowing he could not have done so — according to Article 95 — after the submission of a no-confidence motion against him.
“Was it mandated for former Punjab governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema to administer the oath to the-then Punjab chief minister Hamza Shahbaz?” Malik Ahmed said. “When you (Imran) break the Constitution, it’s a joke but when we haven’t even done so as yet, you are blaming us.”
Commenting on the upcoming by-elections of the National Assembly, Malik Ahmed said the Punjab Governor Baligurh Rehman was not bound by the Constitution to announce an election date because he did not direct the dissolution of assemblies.
“If the assemblies are dissolved automatically as a consequence of the advice, you cannot blame him for violating the Constitution.”