World News | Pakistan PM Sharif Writes to President Alvi for Dissolution of National Assembly

Islamabad, Aug 9 (PTI) Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday wrote to President Arif Alvi and sought dissolution of the National Assembly three days before the end of its five-year constitutional term.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led coalition government would have liked to remain in power for a couple of more days and dissolve Parliament on August 11 but it believes that President Alvi, a former leader of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, might refuse to issue a notification immediately for the dissolution.

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Prime Minister Sharif late Wednesday night sent a summary for the dissolution of the National Assembly to President Alvi, formally beginning the process for the appointment of a caretaker setup, Geo News reported.

The advice from Prime Minister Sharif for the dissolution was sent to President Alvi three days before the term of the lower house of Parliament expires. President Alvi can either issue a notification forthwith to dissolve the assembly or can delay it for 48 hours and after that, it will stand dissolved.

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Since the assembly has been dissolved before time, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would hold elections within 90 days. If the National Assembly had completed its constitutional term, the polls would have been held within 60 days, but in case of dissolution before time, the elections should be held within 90 days.

The polls are expected to be delayed for a couple of months as new census results have been approved, which makes it a constitutional obligation to carry out delimitation before elections.

The ECP is bound to carry out delimitation within 120 days and then announce the election schedule.

Though it is technically possible to expedite the process and determine delimitation of constituencies in minimum time and then go for elections within 90 days, it is not clear if the ECP would follow the deadline as it has a valid reason to overshoot the deadline.

“On the completion of the incumbent government's term, I would send a summary to the President of Pakistan for dissolution of the National Assembly by Wednesday (and then an interim government will take over," Prime Minister Sharif said on Tuesday while addressing a ceremony.

The outgoing assembly was the 15th National Assembly which began its five-year journey on August 13, 2018, with the election of a speaker and deputy speaker. The assembly was elected after an election held on July 25, 2018.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)