Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday reiterated the party’s demand that the chief election commissioner should resign, calling for the formation of “a new and credible election commission”.
In a press conference, he said PTI wanted general elections in the country as well as electoral reforms.
He was of the view that an election framework should be finalised by political parties and the resignation of the chief election commissioner should be discussed.
Fawad also said that the administrative crisis being faced by the country since April 2022 would be difficult to resolve for any government.
He pointed out that PTI could topple the federal government in a day if it wanted but, “we are giving leeway to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to take the right decision on general elections.”
“We can boldly ask President Arif Alvi to initiate a vote of no-confidence against the current government but we are giving it a chance,” he said.
He said PTI wants an interim government for 3 months.
Brushing off the notion that the interim setup would need more than three months to deal with the deteriorating economy, he added that economy was not the responsibility of the caretaker government.
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“The elected government will deal with the economy,” he said.
Foreign funding case
Talking about the foreign funding case against PTI, he admitted that the party received billions of rupees worth of funding from abroad.
“Out of this, Rs250 million were sent by foreign companies and there was no law against such donations in 2013,” he said. “In 2018, the government made a law that banned funding from foreign companies hence it does not apply to 2013 funding.”
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This amount of Rs250 million is under inspection, he said. He urged the ECP to also issue verdicts against foreign funding received by PML-N and PPP.
Stressing that the ECP was biased against PTI, he added that it changed voter lists to ensure that PTI loses the Punjab by-elections.
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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday urged the ECP to announce the verdict on PTI foreign funding case, noting that the delay and impunity granted to PTI was hurting the country.
Ban on entry of PML-N leaders in Punjab
PTI chairman Imran Khan has said the party will form a government in Punjab on July 22 and it will ban Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Atta Tarar and Rana Sanaullah from entering the province.
In his press conference, Fawad added that the two leaders would be banned from Punjab through the issuance of detention orders.