Pakistan: Nawaz to return in Oct, take on army bosses; polls in January 2024
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With three-time Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, who has been in self-exile in London since 2019, announcing his return home next month and making the bosses in the army and judiciary “accountable”, the stage is being set for yet another stormy General Elections to the National Assembly in Pakistan in January 2024.
On Thursday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said the polls will take place in the last week of January 2024. It had reviewed work on delimiting constituencies. The initial list for the delimitation of constituencies will be published on September 27. After seeking objections and suggestions, the final list will be issued on November 30, 2023.
General Elections to the Lower House of Parliament are scheduled to be held within 90 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly, which was prematurely dissolved on August 9, just three days before its term ended.
The previous government headed by Nawaz’s younger brother Shehbaz Sharif announced that the elections could take place only after a new census was completed and new constituency boundaries were drawn.
The move triggered fears that the polls, meant to be held within 90 days, might be delayed until next year as the delimitation process would take about four months to complete.
The decision to shorten the timeframe of the delimitation exercise came amid mounting pressure on the ECP from several political parties for timely elections.
The Constitution also provides that the ECP should complete the delimitation process within 120 days.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Nawaz Sharif, 73, who is widely seen taking oath as the PM for a fourth time if his Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) wins a majority, announced his return home. His chief rival and successor PM Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, who ensured his exile, is now in jail fighting over 150 court cases and his political outfit Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) almost disbanded.
Addressing an online meeting of PML-N leaders from London, he said he is “excited and happy” to return to his country on October 21, ending a four-year “self-imposed exile” and leading his party in the upcoming elections.
The PML-N supremo said the price of petrol, which is currently hovering around Rs 330 per liter, would have been Rs 1,000 per liter had the coalition government led by PML-N’s PM Shehbaz Sharif not “saved” the country from default.
Amid double-digit inflation, Pakistan’s caretaker government last week effected yet another hike in the prices of petrol and diesel, pushing them to a historic high — over Rs 330 per liter — triggering immediate protests and a legal challenge too, the media reported.
The fuel price hike came on the heels of a 27.4 percent increase in the rate of inflation in August, putting an unbearable burden on the masses. Petrol and diesel became costlier by 20 percent since the caretaker government, headed by Anwar ul Haq Kakar, took over in August.
Sharif also lashed out at Pakistan’s all-powerful military and judicial establishment in 2017, saying the people should know who the real culprits for their agony were.
“The man (Nawaz) who rid the country of power load shedding was sent home by four judges,” Sharif said in an emotional speech, adding that the former Army Chief General (Retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and ex-Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief General (Retd) Faiz Hamid were behind his ouster.
“(Former) Chief Justices Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa were tools (of the former Army Chief and his spy chief). Their crime is bigger than a murder offense. Giving them pardons will be an injustice to the nation. They don’t deserve pardon,” he said, vowing to hold them accountable.
“These ‘characters’ who unleashed economic misery on the people of Pakistan will have to face accountability,” the PML-N leader pledged.
“See how India has progressed and even landed its spacecraft on the Moon, while we are begging with a bowl everywhere. During the Vajpayee regime, India had hardly USD 1 billion in foreign exchange. Now it has over USD 600 billion in reserves.”
“Today the poor in Pakistan are craving bread. Who brought the country to this mess,” he questioned and regretted that today people were worried only about two square meals. He recalled that, in 2017, when he was in power, cheap flour, ghee, and sugar were available.
Defending the PML-N decision to form the 16-month coalition government after defeating Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan through a no-confidence motion in April 2023, Sharif said: “We put at risk our political capital to save the country from default. In fact, we paid the price of saving Pakistan from default. However, I can give in writing that in the next elections, we will win.”
In July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) transferred USD 1.2 billion to cash-strapped Pakistan, part of the USD 3 billion bailout program for nine months to support the government’s efforts to stabilize the country’s ailing economy.
Pakistan’s economy has been in a free fall mode for the last many years, bringing unbearable pressure on the poor masses.
