APD | US doesn’t have any such plans to support new elections in Pakistan

Ms. NAFISA SHAH is a Pakistani politician who has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, since August 2018. Previously, she was member of the National Assembly from March 2008 to May 2018. Ms. Nafisa Shah served as Nazim of District Khairpur from 2001 to 2007. Here are some of Ms. NAFISA SHAH's thoughts on the elections in Pakistan.

Ms Nafisa Shah said that the way PTI and especially Imran Khan is doing politics is not in favor of the masses or the country and it’s not serving the democracy as well. Imran Khan was given the mandate to serve and act according to his ideology and was free to apply his policies for three and half years and after that when he was unable to deliver to masses. Also from within his own party there were PTI members parliament who were not happy with his policies either internal or external. They decided to support the then opposition and resultantly a new unity government was formed around eight months ago. The current government is trying its best to provide relief to the masses while on the other hand Imran Khan thinks that Pakistan can only progress when he is in power. He belives only he is neat and clean while all other politicians are corrupt. This is very dangerous. When we have accepted him as Prime Minister now its his turn to show patience and let the political system run smoothly. Whatever he is doing is not a good sign for democracy. If there is some harm to the political system or democracy it will be just because of the Imran Khan rigid policies and his desire to politicize state institutions like Army, Election Commission, NAB and even courts.

Ms Nafisa Shah was of the view that staging demonstrations and protests against the political opponents to mobilize party worker is the democratic right of every political party and we respect it. Pakistan people’s party have firm belief on freedom of expression. Imran Khan’s government was terminated according to the constitution and with the vote of no confidence in the National Assembly of Pakistan. There is no consistency in the plans / policies of Imran Khan. He is famous for his U-Turn approach. We have seen a flop power show of PTI Imran Khan in Rawalpindi last Saturday, as PTI was not effectively gather people to put pressure on the present government. Consequently, PTI and Imran Khan as announced earlier to march towards Islamabad or stage a ‘sit in’ has been failed.PTI couldn’t get any of its objective, on new Army chief or to force government to get a certain date for new election.

There are mere chances of large-scale conflict, although Imran Khan has announced to quit from the system and abolish the two provinces’ (Punjab & KPK) assemblies where PTI is in power. Our utmost effort will be to complete the 5 years term of assemblies both at provincial and national level. We may hold by-elections if required. There are chances that we may form our unity governments with help of our allies in both provinces.

The current government is a coalition government and we with the consultations of the all parties will decide our future plans on the current political situation. One thing is clear that the new election will be held on time next year. There are certain chances that if PTI come to table and talk with government, the new elections may be held bit earlier as per schedule. But it all depends on the attitude and reaction of PTI and Imran Khan.

On about the support of US on new election in Pakistan the reply of Ms Nafisa Shah was, “Imran Khan government in its last months had very low-profile relations with US as he was of the view that US was behind to topple his government. He openly criticized the US which has damaged the Pak US relations to some extent. But now, Mr. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who assumed the portfolio of Foreign Minister in April has very extensive talks with the US leadership and now the relationship is much better as compare to last year. I don’t think that the US has any such plans to support new elections in Pakistan before time. In my views, things are getting better in current government and the US would like to not interfere in internal affairs like elections, rather it would try to further strengthen its ties with the present government and support the democratic process as well.