Pakistan could be headed toward yet another political crisis. The country has been embroiled in conflicts on the national and provincial levels since last year. It also finds itself amid a perilous economic situation. Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan's party — the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — on Wednesday, January 18, dissolved a second provincial Assembly, in which it held majority seats. Its rival, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) party, criticised the move, saying it meant to deepen the political crisis and force early parliamentary elections.

Further, in a surprise move, Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker on Tuesday (January 17) accepted the resignations of 34 lawmakers of the PTI party. As many as 123 PTI lawmakers had decided to quit the parliament immediately after Khan was removed from power through a no-trust vote in April last year.

However, Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had initially accepted resignations of only 11 of them in July while insisting that the remaining lawmakers would be summoned individually for verification. In an unexpected move, he accepted 35 more resignations, including 34 belonging to Khan’s party and one that of Sheikh Rashid Ahmad of Awami Muslim League — an ally of Khan.

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What does Khan want?

As Opposition leader, Khan has been campaigning for early elections and has claimed — without providing evidence — that his ouster last April in a no-confidence vote in Parliament was illegal. He has also accused his successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the Pakistani military and the United States of orchestrating his ouster. Sharif, army officials and Washington have all dismissed the allegations.

Khan has also banked on his popularity and wide grassroots support to force early elections, and since his ouster has staged rallies across the country, calling for the vote. But Sharif and his PML have repeatedly dismissed the demands, saying elections will be held as scheduled — later in 2023 — when the current parliament completes its five-year term.

Dissolution of second provincial government

On Wednesday, January 18, Ghulam Ali, Provincial Governor of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, dissolved the local Assembly there, just days after another Khan ally, provincial lawmaker Pervez Elahi, dissolved the Assembly of Punjab, the country’s most populous province, in eastern Pakistan.

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Khan's PTI party was in power in both provinces. The dissolution of the chambers will lead to snap elections in both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab — and may lead to the party being re-elected in both provinces — but is unlikely to effect any change on the national level.

Sharif's government maintains that the tactics of the 70-year-old Khan are damaging the country's economy.

PTI lawmakers resign from the National Assembly

The mass resignations came a day after 70-year-old Imran Khan hinted at returning to the National Assembly for consultation with the treasury benches "on an interim set-up to be installed after the dissolution" of the lower house of parliament.

The ruling alliance had welcomed the announcement by Khan but the acceptance of resignations showed that the government wanted to reduce the strength of PTI in the lower house as Khan had also threatened to test Sharif with a no-trust vote.

Zulfi Bukhari of PTI in his reaction said the Speaker had claimed he couldn’t accept the resignations collectively but acted differently.

“Imran Khan thinks of re-entering the National Assembly to seek a vote of no-confidence against Shehbaz Sharif. Within minutes there’s a mass acceptance,” he said. PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said he was thankful to the Speaker but added that he should also accept resignations of the remaining lawmakers.

The acceptance of the resignations had further increased the political polarisation in the country which began after Khan was ousted from power last year.

With agency inputs.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)