As the Pakistan National Assembly stands dissolved by the order of President Arif Alvi, on the recommendation of outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the party led by jailed former PM Imran Khan is observing today as “Thanksgiving and Salvation Day”.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is celebrating the end of the 16-month tenure of the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). However, the outgoing prime minister will continue to perform his duties until the appointment of a caretaker prime minister.
The notification for the dissolution of the assembly issued by the Presidential Palace said that the National Assembly was dissolved under Article 58 of the Constitution from last night. Soon after that, the PTI announced its plans for today.
In a statement issued yesterday, the PTI core committee decided to commemorate the exit of the PDM alliance, which replaced the Imran Khan government in April last year.
The PTI has decided to put forth a detailed analysis of the “devastation” caused by the PDM-led “incompetent government” before the nation, read the statement. The former ruling party would inform the masses about censorship of media and repression against journalists, it added.
Details related to skyrocketing inflation and economic disaster would also be brought before the nation, the PTI statement said.
Meanwhile, Imran Khan, 70, is fighting to overturn a corruption conviction. The former prime minister was sentenced to three years in prison by an Islamabad trial court on Saturday in the Toshakhana corruption case, for unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022. He was subsequently arrested by the Punjab police from his residence in Lahore.
Imran, currently lodged in the Attock Jail, appealed against his conviction and the three-year prison sentence, filing a plea through his lawyers at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday.
The dissolution of the lower house of Parliament comes around a week after the Sharif government announced that assemblies would be dissolved on August 9, three days ahead of its mandated period, following which elections are to be held within 90 days.
Since the assembly has been dissolved before time, the Election Commission of Pakistan would hold elections within 90 days.