Following three days of negotiations between the government and the opposition PTI to agree on a specific date for nationwide elections, the Supreme Court will continue hearing the election schedule case today.
Details
Even though negotiations ended on Tuesday, the PTI filed a statement with the court stating that no agreement was reached and requesting that the court enforce its order to hold elections in Punjab on May 14.
On the other hand, the government filed its response to the court today, citing “substantial progress” in the talks.
The three-member Supreme Court bench also made it clear to the negotiating parties at the previous session on April 27 that its April 4 order on Punjab Assembly elections remained intact.
Report Submitted by the Federal Government
In a related development, the federal government today submitted a statement to the Supreme Court on the outcome of the talks, three days after the PTI did so, requesting that the Supreme Court’s order on carrying elections in Punjab on May 14 be followed “in letter and spirit.”
On May 2, the PTI and the federal coalition finalized the crucial round of election discussions. Last week, the talks began on the advice of the Supreme Court.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar presented the report through the solicitor general.
Reply Filed by the Government
In its response, the government reported the PTI’s committee as accepting “the gravity of Pakistan’s financial challenges and decided to deal on holding general elections to the National and all provincial assemblies on the same date.”
The committees also agreed that caretaker governments should be in a location at both the federal and provincial levels to hold general elections “justly, fairly, and following the law,” according to the response.”However, there is no agreement on the date of dissolution of the National and Provincial Assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan, and committees agreed on May 2 to resume negotiations after receiving clearance from their respective leadership,” the minister said.
