‘Delaying elections’ among options tabled at PDM huddle

The top brass of the three major parties in the ruling alliance on Thursday put their heads together at PM House to discuss possible strategies for the upcoming by-polls on vacant National Assembly (NA) seats, as well as elections to the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assemblies, with the possibility of delaying the electoral exercises being discussed as one of the options.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is also president of the PML-N, met with PPP leader Asif Zardari and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to “discuss the prevailing overall political situation in the country,” according to an official announcement.

This was for the second straight day that the prime minister and his close aides consulted major allies on the “political and economic issues”, after a detailed meeting with Mr Zardari on Wednesday.

The huddles come after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) suggested elections in Punjab between April 9 and 13, and in KP between April 15 and 17. Similarly, the ECP is also gearing up for the by-elections on 93 NA seats, which fell vacant after the acceptance of PTI lawmakers’ resignations.

According to sources in the ruling alliance, the leadership’s main focus in the two meetings was the upcoming elections in Punjab and KP and the economic challenges being faced by the country. They said the possibility of postponing the elections in both provinces also came under discussion.

The proposal, they said, came from the PML-N, which believed that it was not an appropriate time for the party to go into elections, especially in Punjab, where it was struggling to gain ground due to internal wrangling within the party’s ranks, as well as reeling from the fallout of the dire economic and energy situation in the country.

The PML-N, they said, had apprehensions about the outcome of elections held in the absence of party supremo Nawaz Sharif. Moreover, the PML-N is yet to settle on a narrative to go into elections at a time when PTI’s star is on the rise, helped by co-opting the PML-N’s anti-establishment narrative.

“Yes, the issue [of delay in the elections] came under discussion,” said a senior politician who was part of these consultations. However, he claimed, a final decision would be taken after some more meetings, once the parties had a chance to hold internal brainstorming sessions.

He said the leadership discussed the option of delaying the elections on the pretext of the delay in the population census. Mr Zardari, however, was not convinced and sought some more time to consider the proposal, he said.

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has already delayed the launch of the country’s first-ever digital census by a month, citing “unavoidable circumstances” and “ground realities”. Earlier scheduled for Feb 1, the census will now begin from March 1 and will continue for a month.

In October 2021, the previous PTI government green-lit the digital census and scheduled it for Oct 2022, which was then deferred to February 2023.