Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Vice Chairman and former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani on Sunday said how a Chief Minister, who cannot file a First Information Report (FIR), can dissolve the Assembly.
The PPP leader’s comment came while talking to reporters in Lodhran when he took a jibe at Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi for giving Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan the power to dissolve the provincial assembly.
A day earlier, Khan said that CM Elahi had given him “full authority to dissolve the assembly” while giving an interview to a private news channel.
He also expressed his willingness to prevent the dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies if the coalition government agrees to hold elections by the end of March next year.
Imran Khan will not take the risk of dissolving the assemblies. They know that if they do that, the elections will be held in only two provinces,” Gillani said, adding that Khan should hold unconditional talks with the coalition leadership.
When Imran Khan did not agree to our demand to hold elections, how can we accept his demands? The former prime minister said that the PTI chief’s false narrative has been exposed.
He criticized the Khan-led party for conducting a media trial against PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN). Gillani said that now that the tables have turned, the PTI is calling for elections for fear of being “exposed”.
“We have faced imprisonment in minor cases. They are scared and demand elections because their cases are big.
Commenting on Khan’s claim that PTI will win the next elections, the PPP leader called it his “misunderstanding”.
“It is Khan’s misunderstanding that if elections are held, he will get two-thirds majority. Our coalition parties are influential in their respective regions and will form a coalition government in future too,” said the former prime minister.
“Why are they in a hurry?”
Meanwhile, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said that people will vote on the basis of performance and challenged them to run the government in the first two provinces.
Speaking to reporters in Lahore, the minister refuted Khan’s claims of a landslide victory in the next elections and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam’s confidence in maintaining its position in Punjab.
According to him, our government is limited to 27 km. Those who claim that the country is not developing, what have they done to it? The minister questioned that the country can never progress when its politicians keep defaming each other.
“Why are they in a hurry?” the minister asked about their impatience with the elections on the Etihad setup in Punjab, hinting at accountability concerns. “They haven’t seen anything yet. We’ve suffered a lot.”
Commenting on Khan calling the extension of former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa a “big mistake”, Rafiq said: “If extension was a mistake, then again. Why was the offer made?”
A day earlier, the PTI chief regretted trusting the former army chief and said: “Giving him (General Bajwa) an extension was my biggest mistake.”
Khan added that he does not know how he was lied to and cheated during his rule.
