LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Asad Umar has claimed that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was not acting as an impartial institution; “in fact, it was behaving like a political party”.

While addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, the former federal minister criticised the ECP for consulting the Punjab Governor four days after the order was issued by the Lahore High Court; “by not announcing elections in Punjab, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) was violating the Constitution and committing a big mistake, which he would regret in future”.

Asad Umar urged the CEC not to become part of a conspiracy aimed at abrogating the Constitution. “The Constitution has set a 90-day time limit to hold elections if the assembly was dissolved before completing its tenure. However, 31 days have passed, but they are not holding elections,” he added.

Umar accused the rulers of attempting to deviate from the Constitution by not holding elections and thus it was a threat to the Constitution and democracy; “the rulers feel threatened by PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s popularity and hence they were avoiding elections”.

Talking about the government’s stance that it does not have the money for the elections, he observed that the finance ministry was spending over 1000 billion rupees every month under the head of expenses, but it does have the funds for new elections. “This exposes the government’s intent of not holding the elections,” he added.

“Knowing that the judiciary would not side with the government on its plan to violate the Constitution, an organized campaign was being run against it; the opponents feared that the judiciary was not bowing down to their pressure”. However, he was confident that the Constitution and democracy would continue and the people would take their own decisions; “closed-room conspiracies would not change the destiny of nation”.

He asserted that they would ‘drag the rulers to the election’ and called on the Chief Election Commissioner not to be a part of any conspiracy to sabotage the Constitution. Talking about the current economic mess, he averred that through a regime change, the PTI government was removed and subsequently political instability was created; “this caused an economic meltdown in the country and the economic situation worsened due to the rift between Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and former federal finance minister Miftah Ismail”.

He accused Dar of weakening the economy and stalling an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “Under his management, Pakistan’s credit ratings have declined and lately Fitch Rating has downgraded our credit rating as well. The tall claims made by Dar before taking charge of the ministry have been exposed. The country right now was facing soaring inflation while businesses were closing,” he added.

Umar also accused the current government of trying to bypass the constitutional process in an attempt to impose new taxes on people through an ordinance, but President Arif Alvi refused it and advised them to take the matter to the parliament.

He averred that the incumbent rulers were trying to hide behind the ordinance and bypass the parliament; “as per the Constitution, a money bill should be discussed in the Parliament, but the government was reluctant to take up new taxes to its legislators after fearing reprisal.”

He claimed that the ordinance was intended to defame the President; “new taxes would lead to a new wage of inflation and subsequently the government would shift the blame on the President”. “Hence, the President has rightly advised the government to table a bill on new taxes in the National Assembly,” he added.

On this occasion, he denied tendering an apology in a contempt case registered against him by the electoral body; “my statement in the court was wrongly understood that I apologized for issuing a statement against the ECP. I stand by my statement made about the Election Commission and my lawyer would submit a revised statement to address the ambiguities,” he added.

He pointed out that the ECP was not authorised to impose contempt on anyone; only the high courts have the power of contempt of court and the Election Commission was not a court.

Speaking on this occasion, former Punjab Assembly Speaker Sabatin Khan said that the PTI was going to write to the President, requesting him to take action against the Punjab Governor for violating the Constitution.

“The PTI had a majority in the Punjab Assembly, and it decided on its own to dissolve the same,” he said, adding that the caretaker government (in Punjab) was doing everything except for the job it had been mandated by the Constitution.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023