The following mention appeared in Gulf Times on August 10, 2023, at the following link

https://www.gulf-times.com/article/666185/international/pakistan-parliament-stands-dissolved

Pakistan’s parliament was dissolved by the president on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s advice late last night, the president’s office said, setting the stage for a national election amid political and economic crises.
The advice came three days ahead of the parliament’s five-year term, which expires on August 12. It will be followed with a caretaker administration to be picked by Sharif and an opposition leader in the outgoing parliament to hold new elections in 90 days.
“I will tonight advise the president to dissolve the parliament,” the premier had earlier told the parliament. He said he would start discussions with the opposition leader today to pick from candidates recommended from both sides to nominate as caretaker prime minister.
The vote, however, could be delayed several months with the election commission set to start redrawing hundreds of constituencies based on a fresh census.
Analysts have said any delay in the election could fuel public anger and add to uncertainty in the nuclear-armed nation.
The last general election in July 2018 was won by the party of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who was sworn in days later as prime minister for the first time.
Khan was replaced by Sharif, whose tenure saw a debilitating economic crisis and historically high inflation levels as the government implemented painful reforms to secure funding from the International Monetary Fund.
In addition to the legal issues that could crop up if the vote is delayed, the side-lining of Khan, the country’s most popular leader according to polls, will cast doubt over the credibility of the elections.
Pakistan will have a new interim government in days after parliament concluded its last session late yesterday.
“In the past 16 months, our government tried its best to improve the situation and served the nation with full conviction,” outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in his last address to the cabinet. “This country can’t progress until we have national unity,” he said.
The new interim prime minister must be announced within three days of parliament’s formal dissolution by the president, and elections held within 90 days — but the outgoing government has already warned they are likely to be delayed.
The unlikely coalition between Pakistan’s usually feuding dynastic parties — which came together to kick out Khan — has won little popular support while at the helm of the world’s fifth-most populous country.
The economy is still in the doldrums despite a new IMF bailout, with crippling foreign debt, soaring inflation and widespread unemployment from factories idled because they lack foreign currency to buy raw materials.
“Economic decisions are invariably tough and often unpopular, requiring a government with a longer tenure to effectively implement them,” said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, president of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency think tank.
“This election holds significance as it will result in a five-year term for a new government, which ideally should be empowered to make essential decisions vital for economic recovery.”
There has been speculation for months that there could be a delay to elections as the establishment grapples to stabilise the country, which is facing overlapping security, economic and political crises.
Data from the latest census carried out in May was finally published at the weekend and the government says the election commission needs time to redraw constituency boundaries — a sore point for several political parties.
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, told AFP that any delay could give time to the main coalition partners, the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), to figure out how to address the challenge of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
“But in reality, delaying the election could simply anger the public more and galvanise an opposition that has already suffered through months of crackdowns,” he said.
Behind any election in Pakistan lurks the military, which has staged at least three successful coups since the country was forged from the partition of India in 1947.
Khan enjoyed genuine widespread support when he came to power in 2018 but analysts say it was only with the blessing of Pakistan’s powerful generals — with whom he reportedly fell out in the months before his ousting.
He later waged a risky campaign of defiance, accusing the military of meddling in politics and even naming an intelligence officer as being behind a November assassination attempt in which Khan was shot in the leg.
He heaped pressure on the government to hold early elections by staging mass rallies and pulling his MPs from parliament but his gambit ultimately failed.
Khan, who has been hit with more than 200 legal cases in recent months, has said the charges against him are politically motivated and designed to prevent him from contesting elections.
His first arrest and brief detention in May sparked days of sometimes-violent protests, with unprecedented anger directed towards the military.
It was met with a fierce crackdown to crush his street power.
An interim government, expected to be made up largely of technocrats, will face a tough task.
“Ultimately, the biggest challenge will be for the caretaker administration to stay above the partisan fray and not be dragged into the political battles being waged between the politicians and the military,” Kugelman said.
“It is after all a hyperpartisan and hyperpolarised moment — not an easy environment for an apolitical caretaker to navigate.”