HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Sunday it may be the case that his party’s allies in the erstwhile Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led ruling coalition were scared and running away from polls.
Bilawal said that he has been telling his allies for the past eighteen months that if they get scared, they die in politics.
Addressing the public at the inauguration ceremony of the Hussainabad Water Filtration Plant in Hyderabad, Bilawal said that, unfortunately, the rest of his political allies have been scared. They are afraid. They run away from by-polls and local government elections, and maybe they now want to run away from general polls.
His statement appeared to criticize the PPP’s allies for prioritizing delimitation over holding polls within the constitutionally mandated ninety-day period following the assemblies’ dissolution.
The coalition’s tenure in the government ended on 9 August with the premature disbanding of the National Assembly, three days ahead of its constitutionally mandated term.
According to Article 224 of the Constitution, polls should be held within ninety days — by 9 November in this case — of the premature disbanding of the NA.
ECP Ruled Out Polls This Year
However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has ruled out polls being held this year, citing the need to conduct fresh delimitation of constituencies after the notification of new 2023 digital census results.
For its part, the PPP has taken a tough stance for polls within three months, standing against its erstwhile allies who seem to favor elections after the completion of the delimitation process, which could stretch them beyond the constitutionally mandated limit of ninety days.
