Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is under pressure to call for early elections almost a year before schedule with sources saying he has been advised to make the announcement soon given that his government’s main agenda has been fulfilled and pressure is mounting from his ousted predecessor Imran Khan.
Sources say that while the PML-N trio of Sharifs – Shehbaz, Maryam and Nawaz – are ready to announce early polls, Pakistan Peoples’ Party leader Asif Ali Zardari and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) president Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman are reluctant.
Shehbaz Sharif has reportedly been advised to announce early elections in the next 15 days with a small budget. The Pakistan PM will likely accept some IMF recommendations and cut subsidies to get loans, while Saudi Arabia is tipped to give $3 billion rollover.
Sources told News18 that the early elections could be held as early as September and the new government will appoint a new army chief.
A defiant Imran Khan had this week warned that he would return to the Pakistani capital “with the entire nation” if the “imported government” failed to announce fresh general elections within a six-day deadline.
Reacting to Khan, Shehbaz Sharif had retorted that his “dictation won’t work” and parliament would decide the date for polls.
Khan, a former cricket star turned Islamist politician, was prime minister for over three and half years until he was ousted last month by a no-confidence vote in parliament. Since then, he has held rallies across the country, saying his removal from office was the result of a US-organised plot. Washington has denied the allegation, and Sharif has called Khan’s claim “a pack of lies.”
Khan lost his grip on power in April when some members of his Tehreek-e-Insaf party and a key coalition partner defected ahead of the April no-confidence vote, which he also blamed on the United States.
His popularity took a dive in the final months of his rule because of increasing inflation — but in the weeks since his ouster, he has regained some of the losses mainly thanks to his rhetoric against the US and Sharif’s government.
With agency inputs
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