Pakistan Minister Ahsan Iqbal told a TV channel that the decision was reached after Sindh and Balochistan provincial governments raised the issue.
Pakistan’s ruling coalition government and the military have reached a consensus that simultaneous elections will be held in all assemblies, local media reported Tuesday.
The decision was taken in two meetings, the first of which was attended by the members of the coalition parties in the government and the second by Chief of Army Staff Gen Asim Munir and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, among others, reported Pakistan-based daily Dawn.
Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal told a TV channel that the decision was reached after Sindh and Balochistan provincial governments raised the issue. “In view of the concerns of Sindh and Balochistan, the meeting reached a consensus that elections to the national and provincial assemblies should be held at the same time, and not separately,” he said, as per the Dawn report.
“If the elections in Punjab are held now, the new provincial government will have an influence on the polls to the National Assembly,” he added.
PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira echoed this sentiment. “It was a common opinion of all in the meeting. If elections in Punjab and KP are held now, it will create more problems and conflict,” the report quoted him as saying.
The issue of simultaneous elections featured significantly in Pakistan politics after a Supreme Court order said that the current caretaker government of Punjab province should hold elections by April 30. One of the points of conflict was that the Punjab elections would then be held under the old census data while the upcoming Assembly elections will be held after the new census is completed in around four months.
Source : Indian Express
