During the meeting, Prime Minister Shehbaz sought his opinion and discussed the arrangements for the interim prime minister and the interim setup.
On August 9, the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will send formal notice to the President for the dissolution of the National Assembly. According to constitutional provisions, the President must sign the opinion within 48 hours to effect the dissolution. If, for whatever reason, the President does not sign the opinion, the Assembly will be automatically dissolved, reported The Express Tribune.
In addition, Prime Minister Shehbaz assured that after three days of consultations with the opposition, he will present the name of the interim prime minister to the president.
However, if no agreement is reached, the Electoral Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will step in and nominate a candidate for the post of interim prime minister from among the proposed names, The Express Tribune reported.
In particular, he highlighted the successful negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), stressing the importance of economic stability for the nation’s progress. Earlier this week, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the upcoming elections in Pakistan would be held on the basis of the 2023 digital census, Dawn reported. The prime minister, whose government is expected to hand over the reins of the country in August, shared this during a recorded interview on the Aaj News show ‘Faisla Aap Ka’, which aired on Tuesday. .
“We have to carry out the elections on the basis of the new census… When a census has been carried out, the (polls) must be carried out on the basis of it, unless there is an obstacle that cannot be overcome. But I don’t see ( any obstacles),” Dawn quoted Sharif as saying.
He added that a meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), the body that approves the results of the census, was expected.
Sharif further said that the census results would be forwarded to the ITC as soon as they were finalized.
Notably, Prime Minister Sharif’s statement is a departure from earlier assertions by his ministers, who said the upcoming elections would be held on the basis of the 2017 census, Dawn reported.
When asked about the possibility of election delays, he said this should not be the case, however, adding that “the ball will be in the electoral commission’s court.”
However, this decision provoked a curt response from the Muttahida Qaumi-Pakistan Movement (MQM-P), one of the ruling allies in the coalition government in Pakistan which maintains that the population of Karachi has not been counted in the new census, according to Dawn.
Last week, Prime Minister Sharif held a meeting with his leaders in Karachi, in an apparent attempt to appease the party, where he assured them that any decision on the matter would be made after consultation with all coalition partners, Dawn reported.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sharif had said that the National Assembly would be dissolved by August 12 with the consultation of the allied parties.
In an interview on the Geo News program, he said that the mandate of the National Assembly will end on August 12 and before that, the assembly will be dissolved.
Sharif further said that the decision on the interim prime minister will be taken in consultation with the opposition leader in the National Assembly and before that he will consult all allied parties and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif.
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