Daily Times

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar has said the coalition government is ready to hold a grand political dialogue if Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan shows a willingness to bring down political heat.

“Imran Khan should send two people from his side while two people from the coalition government will sit together to discuss things,” he said addressing a press conference on Thursday, adding that during the four-year tenure of the PTI, they did not try to mend relations with the opposition. Tarar said that general elections across the country should be held together for political and economic stability.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had postponed the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa keeping in view the security, political and economic challenges, he said, adding that unfortunately an onslaught had been started on social media against this decision without even reading the facts.

The minister said that it was the mandate of ECP to conduct free and fair elections in the country under article-218 of the constitution. The ECP didn’t consider the current situation as suitable for the polls, he said.

He said that a surge in terrorism incidents had been witnessed in the country during last few months and the ECP had taken this decision after the state institutions apprised it about the security issues. The security institutions were currently busy in borders, internal security and census, he said, adding in this situation it was not possible to get heavy deployment for the polls as well.

The minister further said that the Article 224 of the constitution asked for the general elections at the same time across the country, adding that article-254 also gave provision to postpone the polls due to the extraordinary situation. There were several examples in the past when elections were postponed due to certain reasons, he said.

He further said that the election had been taking place at the same time since 1997.

The law minister said that we had to use the country’s resources in a good way for economic boost, adding that there was need to increase exports and decrease imports as well for this purpose.

He said that the general elections couldn’t be taken place without the fresh digital census in the country which would take around six weeks to be concluded.

Many political parties had reservations against the previous census, he said. He further said that two provincial assemblies were dissolved just to satisfy the ego of the one person. He said that Imran Khan had violated the constitution through trying to dissolve the national assembly on the basis of a worthless letter.

The PTI’s chief, he said, never consulted the opposition parties during his tenure, adding that in his tenure around 80% of the country’s total loan was taken. He, however, said that the government would welcome if the PTI’s chairman was ready for national dialogue for the country.