Instead of funding the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC), Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has said that the government cannot move forward without the opinion of the Parliament.
"Yes, the cabinet sent the matter to the parliament; we say that the Supreme Court should call the entire parliament and disqualify it," he said.
The minister said, "If Imran Khan had not given the ultimatum of May 25, we would have decided to dissolve the assemblies, and Nawaz Sharif's decision was to leave the government and go to the elections."
He said that if PTI chief Imran Khan's attitude continues, there may not be elections even on October 8. He further said that Nawaz Sharif would return to London from Saudi Arabia after Eid.
Meanwhile, in order to "strengthen the federation," the joint session of the parliament adopted a resolution emphasizing the simultaneous holding of general elections for the national and provincial assemblies.
Murtaza Javed Abbasi, the federal minister for parliamentary affairs, and Senator Kamran Murtaza introduced two similar resolutions intended to advance political stability and create cooperation among the provinces.
The resolutions supported holding all of the assemblies’ general elections simultaneously. In order to ensure impartiality and fairness during the elections, the resolutions highlighted the importance of choosing neutral caretakers.
Additionally, it was contended in the resolutions that holding separate elections in Punjab, the largest federating unit with more than 50 percent of the National Assembly (NA) members, would unavoidably affect the results of general elections for Punjab’s National Assembly seats.
The resolutions highlighted that this would potentially diminish the contribution of the smaller provinces to the federation.