PTI to dissolve KP assembly if snap elections called: Fawad Chaudhry

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry reiterated on Sunday that the early elections should be held in the country.

In a brief video message, the PTI spokesperson said his party would dissolve Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s assembly if consensus among all political parties was formed on dissolving the provincial and national assemblies for an early election.

He said his party would not accept any delay in the elections merely on the basis of legislation on the delimitation bill, as what he said, the census is not the spirit of democracy but the elections.

“We reject the delaying tactics as [holding] general elections is a democratic act,” he asserted.

Chaudhry said Article 224 of the constitution, concerning time of general and by-elections, is the supreme legislation, implying that holding early elections do not violate the constitutional laws.

He further said that the PTI wants the delimitation bill to be discussed in the Council of Common Interests before it is passed into law.

It merits mentioning here that the delimitation bill is yet to be tabled in the National Assembly.

Earlier this week, leaders of parliamentary parties had finalized a draft of constitutional amendment bill for delimitation of constituencies on the basis of the provisional results of census 2017.

Punjab will lose seven general and two reserved seats according to the fresh census figures. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will get five more seats of the National Assembly (four general and one reserved seat), while Balochistan will get three more parliament seats (two general and one reserved seat); whereas, Islamabad will get one more general seat.

However, the number of seats allocated to Sindh and Fata will remain unchanged.