PM Shehbaz to write to President Alvi tomorrow for NA dissolution

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday confirmed that he would write to President Dr Arif Alvi tomorrow (August 9) for dissolution of National Assembly (NA), ARY News reported.

“After completing our tenure, I will write and send the advice to President Alvi to dissolve the assembly and then an interim government will take over,” the prime minister said while addressing a ceremony in Islamabad.

Incumbent National Assembly’s full tenure will end on August 12 and if it completes its stipulated time then elections will be held within 60 days. However, the Constitution states that the polls must be held within 90 days if the assembly is dissolved before the completion of its tenure.

It would be liable to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold polls within 90 days if the summary is moved to dissolve the lower house on August 9 (tomorrow).

However, the upcoming general elections in the country will likely be delayed as the Council of Common Interest (CCI) “unanimously” approved the 2023 census.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is now required to carry out fresh delimitation of constituencies.

Before dissolution of the assembly, the government and the opposition required to agree over the caretaker set up to fill the gap before the next general election and installation of elected new government.

Earlier in the day, Opposition Leader in National Assembly (NA) Raja Riaz said that the opposition finalised three names for caretaker prime minister (PM).

Speaking exclusively to ARY News, the opposition leader said that he will meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tomorrow and present the three names finalised for caretaker prime minister slot.

Solarisation of tubes wells

In the ceremony held today, PM Shehbaz launched a Rs377 billion “revolutionary” project to solarise 100,000 agricultural tube wells across the country, which he said was inevitable and the only way forward to make the country progress.

“This is a revolutionary step as without it, no one can think of Pakistan making progress. I want to give a message that no other project can match the significance of solar energy,” the prime minister said while addressing the launching ceremony which marked the distribution of solar tube well certificates to Islamabad-based-farmers.

Calling agriculture the only sector to turn around the national economy, he said the provision of low-cost power supply was inevitable to not only the farmers but also the households, shopkeepers and industry to make the exports competitive.

Lamenting the previous governments’ negligence for not exploiting the immense resources of hydel and solar energy, he said the provision of low cost electricity was the foremost obligation of every government.

He said during last 16 months, his government made utmost efforts to launch the project but the political situation and uncertainty about the IMF agreement caused the delay.

Explaining the scenario of a default country, the prime minister exemplified Sri Lanka and said such states had to curtail imports to save foreign exchange which ultimately led to severe shortage of life-saving drugs, petrol and other commodities, crisis of imported materials and closure of industry, thus leading to chaos.

He said as the IMF had disallowed the subsidy to the agriculture and the industrial sector, the solar energy was the only way forward for cost-reduction and reduce dependence on the costly imported oil.