Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif linked an understanding with the government on the 20th Constitutional Amendment with early general elections on Wednesday, saying the deadlock on the amendment would continue if the government failed to accept the opposition’s recommendations regarding the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). He told reporters that the government would be the only one responsible for Senate election results if they were held in “this worst environment”.
He said dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition should be meaningful regarding the 20th Amendment and early elections being held in a transparent manner. He alleged that the government had misused the term ‘consultation’ and had never included the oppositions in its decisions. He said the PML-N supported the Supreme Court verdict on the suspension of memberships of provincial and National Assembly members elected on bogus voter lists during by-elections. He said the ECP was responsible for the bogus lists. He also demanded the government make the ECP more independent, saying the country’s future depended on transparent and fair elections, which were possible only when the ECP was independent. “The credit for initiating the NRO and memogate cases on the floor of the National Assembly goes to the PML-N. If we had not initiated the NRO case in the National Assembly, it would be have been legalised,” Nawaz said.