General Bajwa advised me to dissolve assemblies: Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said he dissolved the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) after the former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa advised him to do so, The News.com reported.

During a meeting with General Bajwa where President Arif Alvi was also present, the former army chief suggested that if the PTI chief sought elections, he should first dissolve his governments in the two provinces, Khan said in a recent interview with a private news channel on Sunday, The News.com reported. The deposed premier, who was voted out of office in April last year after a no-confidence motion, said the Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief told him that Bajwa wanted to bring Shehbaz Sharif into power.

“General Bajwa and the [premier intelligence] agency knew that the current rulers had stolen the money from the national kitty and taken it abroad. Despite knowing this, General Bajwa was willing to give them ‘NRO’ as he had planned an extension [for himself],” Khan said.

During the interview, Imran Khan added that the polls can take place in July if Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif dissolves the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.

“Elections can be held in July if the prime minister dissolves the assembly,” the ousted premier said.

He also stressed that caretaker governments in both Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the provinces where Khan’s party was in power before he decided to dissolve its two assemblies on January 14 and 18, respectively, are illegal after the lapse of their stipulated term, The News.com reported.

He demanded that the caretaker government be abolished and a new “neutral” interim setup be instated.

He added that the Supreme Court of Pakistan has given May 14 as the date for Punjab polls and his party won’t let the government go beyond that.

“If they think they [incumbent government] will pressurise the Supreme Court, we will not let it happen. They will scandalise the top court to run away from elections,” he said.

In response to the PTI’s call for elections in the two provinces, the government has, time and again, insisted on conducting elections, to the national and provincial assemblies, together in October, The News.com reported.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court had fixed May 14 as the new date for the election to the Punjab Assembly, quashing the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to extend the polls date from April 10 to Oct 8. (ANI)

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