PTI chairman Imran Khan admits to dissolving assemblies on Gen Bajwa’s advice

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan admits to dissolving the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on advice from former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa.

The former prime minister in an interview with a private news channel on Sunday said, “In a meeting with General Bajwa held in the presence of President Dr Arif Alvi, he [Gen Bajwa] said that if you want elections, dissolve your governments.”

“Gen Bajwa had no ideology,” the PTI chairman said, adding that the former chief of army staff (COAS) told him lies.

“General Bajwa and the intelligence agency knew that the current rulers had stolen the money from the national kitty and taken it abroad. Despite knowing this, General Bajwa was willing to give them ‘NRO’ as he had planned an extension for himself,” Imran Khan said, adding “If you have an ideology, you can’t convince yourself to give NRO to these people.”

The ousted premier also suggested polls to take place in July if Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif dissolves the National Assembly — the lower house of parliament.

“Elections can be held in July if the prime minister dissolves the assembly,” he said during the interview.

Imran Khan also stressed that caretaker governments in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) are illegal after the lapse of their stipulated term.

In both provinces, Imran Khan’s party was in power before he decided to dissolve its two assemblies on January 14 and 18, respectively.

“The caretaker government’s tenure is over already, it has become illegal,” the deposed premier said.

He demanded the caretaker government be abolished and a new “neutral” interim setup is instated.

Imran Khan added that the Supreme Court of Pakistan has given May 14 as the date for the Punjab polls and his party won’t let the government go beyond that.

“If they think they [incumbent government] will pressurise the Supreme Court, we will not let it happen. They will scandalise the top court to run away from elections,” he said.