PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Ghulam Ali on Monday said that he hoped the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) would show flexibility in its position on the election issue as he was holding backdoor talks with some of its senior leaders to resolve the issue in the “larger interest” of the country.

“I hope for some positive results in this dialogue,” the governor told Dawn here.

Mr Ali claimed that he asked Senate chairman Mohammad Sadiq Sanjrani to “intervene and play a positive role to bring political parties closer.”

He said there shouldn’t be any issue if polls were held in October.

The governor said that PTI chairman Imran Khan ordered his party’s members to resign from the National Assembly and dissolved the assemblies of Punjab and KP.

Says hopeful for positive results in dialogue

He said that members of the Sindh and Balochistan assemblies won’t agree to the dissolution of their respective houses before the competition of their constitutional terms. Mr Ali claimed that everybody was on the same page on general elections but the issue was about when they should be held.

“What will happen if polls are held in October instead of September [as demanded by the PTI]?”

The governor said that the country’s current financial position didn’t allow the holding of elections in intervals, while the law and order situation didn’t favour such electoral exercise either, so the government advocated nationwide polls the same day.

Earlier after receiving the torch of 34th National Games at the Governor’s House, Mr Ali told reporters that the Supreme Court and parliament would be on the same page on elections.

“Any decision on general elections will be made in the larger interest of the country,” he said.

The governor said that the Supreme Court was the country’s top court, while the Election Commission of Pakistan was also one of the highest constitutional bodies in the country.

He said that he met President Dr Arif Alvi twice and called for a “collective decision” on polls.

On April 18, Governor Haji Ghulam Ali had said the security situation in the province didn’t favour the holding of election to the provincial assembly and the Supreme Court shared his opinion.

“The apex court understands that the law and order situation in KP is not conducive to elections,” he told reporters at the provincial headquarters of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl.

Mr Ali had also said that he was grateful to the Supreme Court for being “lenient” with KP regarding elections. He added that there was no ambiguity regarding the holding of elections within 90 days of the assembly’s dissolution but it was his job to announce the poll date. He claimed that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf led by former prime minister Imran Khan didn’t push for elections in KP as it did for Punjab polls.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2023