Pakistan coalition government decides to dissolve Parliament on August 8

Islamabad [Pakistan]: The two major stakeholders in ruling coalition government -Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – have agreed to dissolve the National Assembly on August 8, sources told Geo News.

However, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb took to her official Twitter handle to clarfy that the date of dissolution of the lower house of parliament has not been decided yet.

“The date [of dissolution] will be decided in consultation with the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and other allied parties. The decision on the date of dissolution of the National Assembly will be officially announced,” she said.

The five-year constitutional term of the existing National Assembly expires on August 12 at midnight, four days after the date on which both parties have reportedly agreed to dissolve the legislature, reported Geo News.

According to the publication, sources also said that August 9 and 10 also came under discussion, but later it was decided to agree on August 8 to avoid any hurdle in the early dissolution of the assembly.

As per the law, if the president doesn’t approve the summary, the assembly stands dissolved after 48 hours which gives the government sufficient time to achieve its aim of premature dissolution, according to Geo News.

Article 224 of the Constitution states, “A general election to the National Assembly or a provincial assembly shall be held within a period of sixty days immediately following the day on which the term of the assembly is due to expire unless the Assembly has been sooner dissolved.”

However, according to the Constitution’s Article 224(2), the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is bound to hold the general polls within 90 days if the assembly is dissolved before its constitutional term, Geo News reported.

Furthermore, recently at an event, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said at an event recently, “Next month, our government will complete its tenure. We will leave before the completion of our tenure and an interim government will come.”

Moreover, the PPP had earlier proposed that the assembly should be dissolved ahead of its constitutional term.