The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) announced on Sunday that the party would protest throughout Sindh on April 25 against staggered elections in the country.
Nisar Khuhro, leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), announced that the Sindh province would not allow Pakistan to be divided into two parts. Furthermore, he insisted that Sindh would only accept elections held on a single day, not in stages.
Elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, where assemblies were dissolved earlier this year, are currently on hold. However, the government remains firm despite the PTI’s insistence on holding provincial elections concurrently with national elections.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court (SC) instructed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold general elections for the Punjab Assembly on May 14 in response to a PTI petition. However, the government rejected the top court’s directive.
Last week, the Supreme Court gave major political parties a reprieve, providing them one week to agree on a date for simultaneous elections for the provincial and national assemblies.
The PPP’s Sindh president announced today that protests against separate elections would occur in all district capitals of the province.
Khuhro emphasized that, according to Section 69 of the 2017 Elections Act, national and provincial elections must be held on the same day. He argued that conducting separate elections would effectively split the country in half.
The PPP leader explained that holding provincial elections in Punjab and KP is designed to influence the election outcomes of the national and other two provincial assemblies (Sindh and Balochistan). However, he warned against becoming a pawn in Imran Khan’s scheming plans.
Khuhro also stated that only the ECP has the authority to set the election date and should be allowed to do so, adding that meddling with the Election Commission’s powers would amount to election rigging.
He urged the top court to assemble a full court to reconsider its April 4 orders, suggesting that if necessary, the KP and Punjab assemblies should be reinstated, caretaker governments established, and nationwide elections held on the same day.
