PM Shehbaz Sharif and Zardari Discuss Political Landscape; Coalition Members to Convene Soon as National Assembly Dissolution Date Remains Undetermined.
According to the sources, PM Shehbaz Sharif and Asif Zardari engaged in second round of consultations within a week. The purpose of their meeting was to discuss strategies for dissolving the assemblies and short listing the members for a caretaker setup in preparation for the upcoming general elections.
The key coalition partners, PML-N and PPP, have reportedly reached an agreement to dissolve the assemblies on August 8. This date is four days before the mandated period is over. However, there is no official confirmation yet regarding the actual date of the assemblies’ dissolution.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Marriyum Aurangzeb, put an end to guesses realted to dissolution date of the National Assembly. She emphasized that they had not made any decision regarding this matter so far.
According to sources, PM Shehbaz and Zardari conducted consultations on the current political situation in the country during their meeting. They also discussed matters related to the upcoming polls.
In the meeting, the Prime Minister was accompanied by Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar and Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, who chairs the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms.
This marked the second meeting between the former president and PM Shehbaz Sharif within a week. The first meeting taking place in Lahore last Saturday.
During the meeting, the sources revealed that the participants reached a decision. They decided to organize a joint gathering of the PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) and PPP, along with heads of coalition partners, within the next two days.
The purpose of this gathering is to strategize on the dissolution of assemblies. Also the formation of the caretaker setup for the upcoming elections.
According to sources , Finance Minister Ishaq Dar suggested that the ruling alliance parties should make these decisions at their meeting. All participants in the meeting endorsed this proposal.
Another topic of discussion during the huddle was to finalize the formula for selecting the caretaker officials.
While the PML-N favored appointing a political stalwart to head the caretaker office, the PPP argued against it. They advocated considering a senior bureaucrat or former senior judge for the post of caretaker chief executive.
The sources indicated that both parties agreed to dissolve the National Assembly and the two provincial assemblies on August 9, three days before the mandated period is over.
The ruling alliance will make the final decision at their summit.The meeting concluded without reaching any decision on seat adjustment or setting a schedule for dissolving the National Assembly, Sindh, and Baluchistan provincial assemblies.
