PDM Planning on Breaking the Electoral College

An 11-party alliance consisting of opposition parties, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), has announced that they are planning on breaking the Electoral College. They added that the next elections of the Senate will be considered faulty and fake by them if they were conducted through the same provincial and national assemblies.

The steering committee of the PDM has also made a decision regarding the anti-government long march. The joint opposition is scheduled to march in the last week of the month of January. 

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the Chief of JUI-F and the head of the 11-party alliance, stated that in his opinion, breaking the Electoral College is a democratic process. While talking to the media, he also added that they are currently devising different strategies to move ahead and are thus, consulting with constitutional experts. He was accompanied by the Vice President of PML-N, Maryam Nawaz, and Bilawal Bhutto, the Chairman of PPP. 

Rehman repeated that the current PTI government cannot be classified as a democratic or constitutional regime. In his opinion, the country has been taken over by the ‘stooge of dictatorship’ and democracy has been buried. 

These remarks were made by the Maulana only a day after the 11-party opposition alliance announced that all the parliamentarians, who are part of the PDM’s constituent parties, will tender resignations in the provincial and national assemblies. These resignations will be handed over to the respective party chiefs by the 31st of December. 

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, responded to these announcements made by the PDM. He stated that the government will go ahead and hold by-elections on the vacated seat if the opposition parties resigned from the provincial and national assemblies. 

Elections have been scheduled for half of the total of the 104 seats in the House. These will be held on the 3rd of March in the year 2021, when 52 of the total senators will retire after completing their six-year term in the Senate. 

At least six of all the new lawmakers belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are expected to get elected into the upper house of the parliament. If this happens, the party will become the third-largest political party in the Senate in terms of its strength. 

The PDM has also claimed that the government is placing hurdles in their way to try and prevent them from holding rallies. Referring to the flooding of the Minar-e-Pakistan in the city of Lahore, the opposition alliance accused the government of causing it. 

The JUI-F Chief declared that the date of December 13 will be considered historic. He stated that the opposition alliance will go through with the rally in Lahore even if the entire venue is turned into a dam by the Punjab government. He added that if one path is blocked, they will make a new one. But, the Maulana assured that the PDM will not be stopped nor will the flood of people. 

Bilawal Bhutto also spoke on the occasion talking about how the PPP has previously overthrown many dictatorships. According to him, they will be successful in getting rid of these ‘incumbent rulers’ once and for all.