All eyes are on the upcoming election in Pakistan, but there is still a lot of uncertainty about it. The people of Pakistan are trying to know whether the National Assembly will be able to complete its term or not and when the elections will be held.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently said in his speech in Sialkot that ‘Today is our government which will complete its term next month and before the term is completed we will leave and a new caretaker government will come.’
Even after this announcement, the ambiguities have not ended, but more questions have arisen, such as whether it will make a difference if the assembly is dissolved before or after, the assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were dissolved a long time ago, but in these two provinces only now. Elections could not be held till now and the supervisory setup is in place. If the elections cannot be held on time even in the federal government, what does the constitution guide in this context?
To answer all these questions, BBC Urdu spoke to Mudassar Rizvi, a constitutional expert and spokesperson of Free and Fair Election Network (FAFN), a non-governmental organization monitoring elections in Pakistan.
It should be noted that the current assembly was inaugurated on 13 August 2018, so its five-year term will end on 12 August 2023 at 12 midnight.
