Washington: Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has emphasized the importance of timely and free and fair elections in Pakistan in a telephonic conversation with Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani.
“Acting Deputy Secretary Noland and Foreign Minister Jilani discussed the importance of timely, free and fair elections in accordance with the laws and constitution of Pakistan,” the US State Department said in a statement.
Top US diplomat Jilani spoke to Jilani on phone to congratulate him on his appointment as Interim Foreign Minister and discussed expanding and deepening the Pakistan-US partnership on issues of mutual concern.
According to Matthew Miller, the spokesperson of the Department of State, matters related to Pakistan’s economic stability, prosperity and continued relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were also considered.
Pakistani politics has been in crisis for more than a year, centered on former prime minister Imran Khan – who was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote last year.
Khan blamed the US and Pakistan’s former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa for his ouster. Both Washington and the military have denied their claims. Khan was not mentioned in the State Department statement on the call between Noland and Jilani.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday suspended the sentence of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief in the Tosha Khana case on corruption charges, but he will remain behind bars as a A judge has already ordered his detention in another case.
Khan’s conviction has also barred him from contesting elections for five years.
Pakistan swore in a caretaker cabinet headed by interim Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar in mid-August, tasked with running the country until new elections, which could be delayed beyond November after redistricting. .
The caretaker cabinet’s biggest task will be to steer Pakistan to economic stability, with the $350 billion economy on a narrow recovery path after securing a last-minute $3 billion bailout deal from the IMF. , which will prevent sovereign debt defaults.
On August 17, the ECP announced the new delimitation schedule as per the new census approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI).
The ECP schedule stated that the new constituencies would take about four months, meaning that general elections in the country could not be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the provincial and national assemblies.
According to the schedule, the notification of new delimitation of constituencies across the country will be done in December this year.
Sources told The News that on August 29, the Foreign Office said it had not yet received any such communication from any capital, while some senior diplomats expressed concern over the delay in the elections in Pakistan. was done.
The FO said that if a country raises any doubts, the authorities can resolve them.
The FO’s reaction came after reports from some senior diplomats that delaying the elections could have a negative impact on Pakistan’s relations with democratic countries.
It was also reported that a few countries have held discussions with the relevant authorities regarding the electoral process to assess the possibility of any unnecessary postponement of the elections.
Top sources within the FO told The News on Monday that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has already made it clear that there are no plans to postpone the elections.
Meanwhile, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch clarified that she is not aware of any message from any capital on this issue, as the position of Pakistan and other countries on the issue is already known.
