Pakistan government has announced that national assembly will be dissolved three days ahead of its mandated period, following which elections are to be held within 90 days. Elections in the country are due in October as the tenure of the incumbent government ends on August 12,2023.

 

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will write to President Arif Alvi on Wednesday, seeking dissolution of the National Assembly, which would bring the incumbent government’s term to a marginally premature end, Dawn reported.

 

Addressing a ceremony in Islamabad on Tuesday, PM Shehbaz Sharif said, “After completing our [government’s] term tomorrow, I will write and send [the advice] to the president to dissolve the assembly and then an interim government will take over.”

 

 

The Pakistan government will enter a caretaker setup today, paving the way for polls to be held within the next 90 days in absence of PTI chief Imran Khan who has been disqualified by the top election body for five years following his conviction in the Toshakhana case.

 

Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistan's top election body disqualified country's former Prime Minister Imran Khan for five years following his conviction in the Toshakhana case last week. An Islamabad trial court on Saturday (August 5) sentenced the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief, three years in jail and imposed a fine of (PKR) 100,000 on him while hearing the ECP’s criminal complaint against him for concealing details of Toshakhana gifts.

 

 

Pakistan’s interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had disclosed the possibility of selecting a non-political individual or technocrat as the interim pm, reported Dawn.

 

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Raja Riaz, said on Tuesday that he had not yet met or consulted the incumbent PM Shehbaz Sharif regarding the names of the caretaker Prime Minister, Dawn reported.

 

However as per Dawn, a decision on the caretaker PM has been "finalised" by the incumbent Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition but to avoid any controversy, they are keeping the name secret.

 

Later, Riaz said during the ARY News show that the names for the caretaker PM candidates were finalised after three meetings with lawmakers from the Opposition, Dawn reported.

“They do not include any politicians but an economist has been shortlisted,” he said about the interim PM nominees. However, he added that former Finance minister Hafeez Shaikh was not among the candidates in the Opposition’s final list.

 

 

No prime minister has even been able to complete a full five year term in office in Pakistan in it’s 76 year history. A trend extended with the removal of former PM Imran Khan, who lost a no-confidence vote on April 10, 2022 after serving the nation for three years and seven months. On 11 April, Shehbaz Sharif took oath as the next PM of Pakistan for the remaining term.

 

Pakistan has had a total of 29 prime ministers since 1947. On 18 Occasions, premiers have been removed under a variety of circumstances including corruption charges, direct military coups and forced resignations due to infighting of governing groups. There was one assassination too. The remaining PM’s held the position for a limited duration as caretakers to oversee new elections or to see out a dismissed PM’s tenure.

 

 

In June 2023, Pakistan National Assembly passed the elections amendment bill 2023 to limit the lifetime disqualification of lawmakers to five years, probably paving the way for the return of former PM Nawaz Sharif from London ahead of general elections.

 

Sharif has been living in self-exile in London since November 2019 after he was allowed by a court to travel to UK on medical grounds. Before his departure, he was serving a seven year jail term in the corruption case.

 

Pakistan’s Supreme Court had disqualified Nawaz Sharif from the office of country’s PM in 2017 over corruption allegations.