By Anzal Amin
ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi on Thursday sent to the prime minister a letter of Chaudhry Fawad Ahmed asking him to look into the issues raised by the former federal minister to uphold the constitution and strengthen democracy in the country.
In his letter to the president, Chaudhary Fawad Ahmed raised issues with regard to the legality of the interim setups in the two provinces of the country.
He had said that the interim governments in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had completed their stipulated period and the constitution did not provide for the continuation /extension of the period fixed for the interim setup.
Fawad had further stated that caretaker governments were introduced as per Article 224 of the Constitution to facili-tate the Election Commission of Pakistan in holding free, fair, just, and honest elections in accordance with the Consti-tution and the law.
In his letter, President Dr Arif Alvi asked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to examine the matter to ensure the upholding of the constitution and strengthening of democracy in Pakistan.
The development comes days after PTI Vice President Choudhry Fawad Hussain wrote a letter to President Alvi about the legality of Interim governments beyond 90 days.
As the constitutional terms of caretaker governments in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) inch towards comple-tion, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry had asked President Arif Alvi to approach the Supreme Court under advisory jurisdiction.
The PTI leader had asked the president torefer the matter of the interim government’s term completion to the coun-try’s top court,adding that they have been involved in making major policy decisions to affect the conduct of polls in the two provinces which have been ordered by the apex court.
On April 4, the apex court declaredthe Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decisionto hold polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on October 8 as “unconstitutional” and void, and ordered to conduct the electionsin Punjab on May 14.
“After the lapse of 90 days, caretaker governments cannot be called legal in any way,” the politician had wrote in his letter, terming their presence a “breach of mandatory constitutional commands by the federal government and the Election Commission of Pakistan.”
In his letter, Fawad had also mentioned that interim governments — which can be considered an extension of the electoral body — are introduced for a limited time period of 90 days and are responsible for ensuring fair and trans-parent elections under Article 224 of the Constitution.
He had added that their only objective is to facilitate the ECP in holding free, fair, just and honest elections in accord-ance with the Constitution and law.
“Therefore, they are vested with only authority and power to run day-to-day af-fairs and not to take major policy decisions.”
Meanwhile, the PTI leader had added, interim setups were established in both provinces after the dissolution of the provincial assemblies. But the incumbent interim governments, against the laws and standards set for them, have in-dulged in takingmajor policy decisions including posting and transfers of the officials to affect the transparency and fairness of the elections.
The PTI had dissolved the Punjab and KP assemblies on January 14 and 18, respectively, in a bid to force the ruling coa-lition to hold early general elections.
The former information minister had further stated that the interim setups in both provinces have completed their constitutional time period and since the constitution does not provide for continuation/extension of the period fixed for the interim setups, their present existence cannot be termed “lawful and they must be considered ‘usurpers’ im-posed by the Election Commission and they are liable to be removed forthwith”.
“In this eventuality, it is respectfully requested to kindly refer the matter to the Honourable Supreme Court of Paki-stan in advisory jurisdiction to address this blatant unconstitutionality,” the letter had read.
It had added that themandatory time period for holding the elections within the stipulated time lapsed due to the “unconstitutional and illegal actions of the ECP and the PDM government in Islamabad”.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had asserted that elections to the Punjab Assembly would not be held on May 14 despite the “all-out efforts” of the opposition PTI.
Elections across the country would be held at the appointed time this year, he had said while talking to the media in Faisalabad.
Calling former prime minister Imran Khan a “fitna” (chaos), Sanaullah had said that he had been brought to power through a “conspiracy”. “Their [PTI’s] policies over four years created a crisis situation for the country.”
Sanaullah had said Khan used to claim that he would prefer to die by suicide instead of approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “It was [Imran Khan’s] government that signed the agreement with the IMF, not us. The diffi-culties are only due to the previous government’s agreement.”
