Rana Sanaullah, Khawaja Asif say that there is a possibility of a delay in holding the next general elections

ISLAMABAD, August 08 (SABAH): Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan and Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif have both stated that there is a possibility of a delay in holding the next general elections.

In an interview with a private TV channel on Tuesday, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that 2023 was not the election year. When asked if 2023 was the year when elections would be held, the minister said, “It is an absolutely straightforward answer — no.”

When one of the hosts commented that the upcoming caretaker setup had “acquired an unconventional significance as the one to get the role might stay for more than three months”, Rana Sanaullah insisted that there was nothing extraordinary about it.

He went on to reiterate that under the Constitution, another general election could not be held on the 2017 census results as they had been accepted “provisionally for a single time”.

Emphasising that it was required by the Constitution to carry out the delimitation process after a census was notified, Rana Sanaullah said, “The caretaker government, while fulfilling this constitutional requirement, will carry out the delimitation process.”

The minister noted that the process takes around 120 days so there was nothing about the elections being delayed by “many months”. “As soon as this constitutional requirement of delimitation is completed, then after that, God-willing, elections will be held,” he said.

Talking about the names under consideration for the role of the caretaker prime minister, Rana Sanaullah said they were all “respected names and discussions were under way”.

“No name has been locked till now. Even if it is [decided], till today evening or tomorrow … there are more chances that it will be locked tomorrow,” he said.

When asked about the possibility of a caretaker set up being around for more than three months, Rana Sanaullah said that this is not an anomaly. He said according to the Constitution, a second election cannot be held based on the 2017 census as that had been accepted “provisionally for a single time”. The 2018 general elections were held on the basis of the 2017 census.

He stressed that it is deemed necessary according to the Constitution that “once a census is notified, delimitation must be done before holding an election”.

Meanwhile in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that elections were “due in November”.

He also pointed out that the National Assembly was set to be dissolved by Wednesday (August 9) evening, adding that under the Constitution polls would be held within 90 days.

“Ninety days in the deadline. One cannot go beyond 90 days. But under some conditions, the election commission has the power to delay it, because of some election problem or census problem or electoral role problem, for a month or two but not beyond that,” he said.

When asked whether the approval of the 2023 census would result in an election delay, Khawaja Asif said: “I cannot speculate at the moment but it is a possibility. I won’t rule that out.”

Anderson then pointed out that the approval of the census came the same day that PTI Chief Imran Khan was arrested in a graft case and wondered if the two developments were connected.

“No, they’re not at all connected. The census controversy was going on for the last many, many months. And we had to create a consensus between all the provinces of Pakistan so that the results are accepted by all the provinces,” Khawaja Asif said.

“The delay was because of this controversy, Otherwise, the result of the census has absolutely no connection with Imran Khan’s conviction,” he said.

At the end of his interview, Asif reiterated that elections will be held in November. “I do believe that elections will be held in November. But you asked me if there is a possibility of delay: There is a possibility of a delay but not more than a couple of months on technical grounds, and no ulterior motive in that,” he said.