What next after the
dissolution advice?
Ansar Bhatti
ISLAMABAD: Chief Minister Punjab Ch. Parvez Elahi finally signed the advice seeking dissolution of the Provincial Assembly. He has forwarded the advice to the Governor. The Governor is bound to accept the advice. In case he does not do so, the Punjab Assembly then shall be dissolved automatically in next 48 hours.
After the dissolution, the incumbent chief minister shall write a letter to the leader of the opposition Hamza Shehbaz for choosing the caretaker set up and if they fail to agree on a set up then the matter will go to the parliamentary committee nominated by the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly.
If the parliamentary committee does not reach a consensus in two days then the Speaker will forward the case to the election commission, which will decide the caretaker government. Experts say the election commission shall choose the caretaker chief minister from the names presented by the government and the opposition parties.
The caretaker government then shall be responsible to ensure free and fair elections in 90 days. This is the ideal scenario if everything goes well. The government will try its best to prolong the caretaker government on the pretext of an ongoing census. The matter will certainly go to the courts once again.
There is also a possibility of enforcement of economic emergencies in the country. Legal experts are of the view under this pretext the government may delay the elections for six months. But in order to impose economic emergency the government will have to come up with some solid reasons.
The KP government has not been dissolved. The PTI perhaps wants to make sure that first the Punjab dissolution should take place then it will go for the KP assembly dissolution. The PTI probably still has some doubts that is why it wants to wait for the next 48 when the Punjab assembly dissolution shall come into effect. Perhaps, that is why PTI Chairman Imran Khan delayed his address to the nation.
Meanwhile, the PML N supremo Nawaz Sharif has come down heavily on the PML N leadership for what he thinks is a failure to contain PTI in the Punjab. He is unhappy with the way the leadership had handled the Punjab situation. Some senior leaders have advised him to go for elections instead of continuing at the federal level. However the Shehbaz Sharif camp is strongly opposed to this preposition.
