Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that he is “confident” that Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi will dissolve the provincial assembly after he wins the confidence vote.
The Lahore High Court (LHC) earlier this week reinstated Elahi as the chief minister in the country’s largest province on the condition that he would not disband the legislative but did not restrict him from taking a vote of confidence.
Imran Khan told senior journalists in the province capital today that Parvez Elahi would take the vote of confidence before the court resumes hearing the case on January 11.
The PTI intends to dissolve both the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab legislatures after the vote of confidence, according to the ousted prime minister.
“When both the assemblies have been dissolved, then the [government] will be forced to hold general elections,” the ex-PM said, adding that if polls are delayed even after PTI’s move, “it won’t affect” the party.
Defending the delay in the assemblies’ dissolution, the PTI chief said the party had to convince its allies before it takes the major step.
Reiterating his prediction about the general polls, the PTI chief said that he foresees elections taking place in April 2023 — just a day after he claimed that they might be held in March or April.
Earlier, PTI leader Farrukh Habib said on Sunday that his party’s MNAS would visit the National Assembly on Wednesday for the acceptance of their resignations as members of the lower house of parliament.
The PTI had announced mass resignations from the NA in April this year, a day after party chief Imran Khan’s ouster as the prime minister through a no-confidence vote and shortly before Shehbaz Sharif was elected as his successor.
Then-NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri, in the capacity of the house’s acting speaker, had subsequently accepted the resignations of 123 PTI MNAs. However, incumbent Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf later decided to verify the resignations and eventually accepted the resignations of just 11 lawmakers on July 27, with the PTI taking an exception to the acceptance of a select few resignations.
Despite his insistence that he can only accept resignations that are “voluntary and authentic,” Ashraf called the party’s legislators to appear before him on Thursday to have their resignations verified.
