The economic and political situation in the country is deteriorating with each passing day but the entire energies of the 13-party ruling coalition aim to arrest former Prime Minister Imran Khan and avoid elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. It seems that if the former prime minister is nabbed, then all problems of the country will automatically be solved. This is indeed making the lives of Pakistanis difficult.

On his part, Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are trying to exploit the situation to their utter advantage and it is obvious from the party winning by-elections in different parts of the country with huge margins. In this situation, when the ruling alliance is using each and every tactic to politically eliminate him, including subjecting him to the worst kind of physical torture by lodging dozens and dozens of cases against him and making him to appear before courts almost every day, there is no solution to the political morass. Imran Khan and the PTI have offered talks to the ruling alliance for deciding the rules of the game but to no avail. In fact, at the moment what the PTI wants is that the ruling alliance comes to the negotiation table so that elections in Punjab and KP provinces could be held at the earliest. However, as the ruling coalition sees its political and electoral defeat, like the writing on the wall, it has refused to talk to the PTI. But the problem is that the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which is the final arbiter in political and constitutional conflicts, intervened. President Alvi has already set the date for elections in Punjab. There is very little the ruling coalition could do to escape elections. In case KP Governor Ghulam Ali fails to give a date for elections in the province, he would be subverting the Constitution. So the only way the ruling alliance can escape elections is to violate the Constitution. The question arises whether Pakistan could afford a sitting government violating the Constitution? Absolutely not. Because the worst political, economic as well as social crisis the country is facing today demands that everyone, particularly all state institutions, must religiously stick to the Constitution. Otherwise there would be a serious threat to the country, particularly the federation.

It is really disturbing for the common people of Pakistan that in the present worst political, economic and social crisis, most politicians across the divide as well as key position holders in state institutions are thinking in terms of either their vested interests or they are trying to cover up the wrongs they committed and in the process they have inflicted great damage on the country and its national interests. In particular, the ruling coalition without any doubt brought the no-confidence motion against former PM Imran Khan despite it not having the majority to dislodge the government. Because former military chief, Gen. Bajwa had, self-admittedly, provided guarantees to the then opposition and current ruling alliance to manage the vote in their favour by using non-political tactics. At this particular time in early 2022, the popularity graph of Imran Khan and his coalition government was at its worst. His government was not delivering in the manner which the people expected and inflation was quite high. In this situation it was obvious that when his government completed its term, the PTI would be voted out hands down by the people of Pakistan. However, as figures like Shehbaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari and Fazlur Rahman had many cases pending against them in courts and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which were in the decisive phases and there were strong chances of their conviction, they connived to bring down an unpopular government of Imran Khan. Political sagacity would have been that the current ruling and then opposition alliance had let the very government of Imran Khan to complete its term or fall down under its own weight. But as these gentlemen had vested interests they decided to bring down the PTI government and come to power by hook or crook. As the then army chief also had many skeletons in the cupboard, he also assisted the current ruling alliance to dislodge the government.

More importantly, when the PTI and Prime Minister Imran Khan unconstitutionally dissolved the National Assembly in March last year by disposing off the pending no-confidence motion in a wrong manner, the then opposition should have accepted the call for new elections. Had elections been held at the particular moment the present ruling coalition government would have easily defeated the PTI and come up with a strong mandate to rule for five years. That would have been a very desirable situation for the country, which needed political stability. However, the then opposition, in order to fulfill its bigwigs’ lust for power, decided to take the reins of a weak government. They justified their act by saying that it was “necessary to drive the country out of the crisis and give relief to the masses.” Time has proved them wrong and the people, who were yearning for relief, today are praying for the departure of the ruling coalition as it has brought ineffable miseries to all Pakistanis. At that particular time even self-exiled former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was disqualified for holding public office by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2017, was convinced by his brother and sitting PM Shehbaz Sharif that the only way his disqualification could be overturned was when their party would have its government. In a bid to serve their vested interests, the ruling coalition inflicted irreparable damage on the country.

However, for this grave mistake the ruling coalition obviously has a very strong price to pay and this is unprecedented unpopularity. This is the reason it is not willing to hold elections. In this process they are not only making the lives of the common Pakistanis miserable due to unprecedented inflation, political instability and bad economic governance but also violating the Constitution. The Constitution is the only document that has kept the federation united and if it is violated at will by delaying elections, then all state institutions will have to protect it whether it ends the politics of any or many political parties and politicians.