Imran Khan dissolving regional assemblies to push Pakistan polls

Bloomberg

Allies of Pakistan’s former premier Imran Khan are moving to dissolve two of the four provincial assemblies in a bid to force Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to call for national elections well before November.
The assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces will be dissolved on Saturday to make way for local polls, said party officials from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The party is likely to win again and Khan will use this to show rivals and the powerful military that his popularity is unassailable.
Sharif repeatedly rejected Khan’s demands for snap elections, saying his government needs to focus instead on rebuilding the country after devastating floods. The economy faces a serious dollar shortage at a time when Pakistan’s loan program with the International Monetary Fund was delayed.
The current government’s tenure ends in August and national elections have to be held within three months.
“Khan’s assessment is that he is enjoying a high level of popularity that can give him a clear majority in the parliament,” said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, president of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency in Islamabad.
“If the government even doesn’t agree on early general elections, then he can at least come into the Punjab assembly with a high degree of strength,” Mehboob added.
Khan, who led huge nationwide rallies and has won most of the by-elections since his ouster last April, sees early national elections as way to regain power and resolve the economic crisis that his critics say he was responsible for. During Khan’s time in power, he had appointed four finance ministers and about half a dozen finance secretaries.
Sharif has invited all political parties including Khan’s PTI party to discuss and agree on an economic charter that would ensure a consistency in policy making no matter who governs Pakistan, a move that was immediately rejected.
“If they want to talk, first talk on a political framework,” Fawad Chaudhry, a senior PTI leader, told television channel Dunya News late Thursday. “Give us an election date and then other matters, including the IMF or economy, may be discussed.”

Powerful Military
Analysts have said Khan is pushing for the dissolution of the state assemblies to send a message to the powerful military establishment that had initially backed his rise to power in 2018. He wants to show them that he is still popular and that it would be disruptive to hold elections in phases, Mehboob said.
The Pakistani army, under its new chief General Asim Munir, has said it will stay apolitical and that all the decisions, including the timing of the general elections, would be taken by Sharif’s government.
The prime minister’s party will still contest in the provincial elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies. The local legislatures are heading for a dissolution after the Chief Minister for Punjab Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, a Khan ally, unexpectedly called for and won a confidence vote in a late night session earlier this week.
“We have reservations on the process of the confidence vote as certain legal procedures weren’t followed,” said Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan, a special assistant to Sharif on defense. “But we will contest election whenever it’s held. We aren’t leaving the field for them. There’s no talk of boycotting the election.”