Amid polarized politics and sinking economy, hawks in the govt and the opposition are warring over timing

Islamabad: Political witch-hunting by the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is touching its peak and it seems that certain elements in the echelons of power are making conscious moves to ditch the system.

On the one hand the coalition government is struggling to meet the tough revenue targets set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the release of its next loan tranche, while on the other, instead of sprinkling water on the overheated political atmosphere, some of the key ministers are issuing provocative statements against the opposition leaders, threatening them with arrests and court cases.

To add to this uncertainty, despite the Lahore High Court’s clear directions to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), the provincial governors of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have not yet announced an election date for the two provincial legislatures, citing one excuse or another.

Federal Interior Minister, Rana Sanaullah Khan, in a recent media chat shared an alleged audio leak of former Punjab chief minister, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, on the basis of which the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was directed to register a case against him. Sanaullah also hinted about the arrest of Imran Khan, chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI).

Following Rana Sanaullah’s disclosures, there was a massive movement of police in the vicinity of Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence in Lahore. In response, the PTI workers and leaders also rushed to the venue to preempt any attempt at the arrest of their leader.

The interim bail of Imran Khan is not confirmed by the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC), and he is yet to obtain a protective bail from the Lahore High Court so as to be able to appear before the ATC in Islamabad.

A central leader of PTI, Farrukh Habib, said that the ruling coalition did not want to go into elections, and that was why they were lodging fake cases against their opponents and arresting them. These actions, he said, were aggravating political uncertainty in the country and levelling the ground for a possible third-party intervention.

“They know it well that in elections they will be wiped out, so they are conspiring against the system, and in the process, they are trampling the Constitution and flouting the orders of the superior courts,” he added.

Sources in the parliament informed Bol News that the alliance partners in the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government were alarmed over the unprecedented popularity of PTI Chairman, Imran Khan, and thus wanted to delay the elections and buy time so as to be able to bring some relief to the people.

The PDM component parties’ decision not to field candidates in the by-elections to the National Assembly, scheduled on March 16 and 19, was also made out of their fear that they would not be able to match the rising popularity of Imran Khan.

Legal and constitutional experts say that the Constitution is clear on holding of elections within 90 days after the dissolution of the provincial or federal legislatures, and that there is no legal and constitutional provision to delay those elections.

“There are certain provisions in the Constitution which provide grounds for a delay in the elections, such as the imposition of emergency in the country, but there are tough legal conditions for such a delay which the prevailing circumstances do not match,” says Naeemullah Khan, an assistant professor at the Capital University of Science & Technology (CUST).

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the governors of Punjab and KP held a number of meetings but failed to come out with a clear decision on holding of elections in the two provinces, and the matter has again bounced back into the courts.

PTI’s Senior Vice-President, Fawad Chaudhry, criticised the CEC for failing in his duty, saying that by doing so the CEC had subverted the Constitution and must face a court trial under Article 6 of the Constitution.

In another development, Speaker Punjab Assembly, Sibtain Khan, has written a letter to the President of Pakistan, asking him to play his constitutional role in holding of elections in the two provinces, and to also take action against the two provincial governors as well as the CEC for failing to conform with their constitutional obligations.

To add to the coalition government’s troubles, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court, while hearing a case against undue transfers and postings ordered by the caretaker government of Punjab, noted the noncompliance of Lahore High Court’s orders by the CEC and the KP governor, and referred the matter to the Chief Justice with a plea to take a suo motu notice of the matter.

So, seeing no chance of getting any relief from the superior judiciary, the PDM government has adopted a hostile posture against the opposition parties so as to create a chaotic situation in the country, which would justify its plans to delay the elections, according to some observers.

According to these observers, the way the authorities arrested Shahbaz Gill, Azam Swati, Fawad Chaudhry and Sheikh Rashid, was a clear indication that the government wanted to create unrest in the country. Its latest plans to arrest Pervaiz Elahi and Imran Khan, especially the latter, whose arrest could trigger countrywide protests, appear to be a push in the same direction, they say.

“We are anticipating an attempt to arrest Imran Khan, and so we have prepared a strategy to deal with the situation,” a senior party leader said.

This was confirmed by Farrukh Habib during his interview with Bol News. He warned the ruling alliance “against any misadventure, because the whole nation will be on roads in case Imran Khan is arrested,” he said.

Sources in the PDM government informed Bol News that the leadership of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and even some central leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had opposed Imran Khan’s arrest on grounds that it will cause the matters to slip out of the government’s control.

There have been some attempts in the recent past to reopen the backdoor channels for talks in an attempt to break the impasse and to carve out some mutually agreed way forward, some PTI insiders informed.

But these attempts failed to bear fruit due to two main reasons, they said. First, there is a huge trust deficit between the two sides, and second, both sides are manned by hawks who have always played as spoilers and never allowed the back-channel contacts to succeed.