ISLAMABAD   -   Normalcy resumed in the federal capital on Thursday after Chairman PTI Imran Khan abruptly called off his protest sit-in giving a six-day deadline to the government to announce the fresh elections with the warning that he would again announce the long march if the demand was not met.

Soon after the former prime minister announced to end his anti-government protest march while addressing his supporters who had gathered at D-Chowk and the main Jinnah Avenue the capital, the PTI protestors peacefully dispersed and left for their homes.

This happened after a full day of clashes of protestors with the police and other law enforcement agencies in Punjab and different parts of the country. The police baton-charged and fired teargas at the PTI workers and hundreds were arrested to stop their entry into the protest march.

Khan who was voted out from the office of prime minister in April this year had announced to hold a long march to Islamabad with the claim that he would stay there till the government announces fresh elections. However, the sudden change in plan of action of the ex-premier has led to the widespread speculations leaving the people to make guesswork as to what was the reason behind his decision?

The participation of a low number of PTI workers in the long march from Punjab is also being described as one of the reasons for this decision. Though police contained the protestors in the province but even then, their participation remained low, said a PTI leader on the condition of anonymity. According to some unconfirmed reports, PTI removed its provincial president of South Punjab Khusro Bakhtiar due to the same reasons.

The government and the opposition PTI on Wednesday had entered into negotiations after some efforts of the powerful quarters but both sides after the talks claimed that there was no breakthrough.

Background talks with some senior politicians indicate that Chairman PTI Khan had been told through some of his own party leaders to call off his sit-in as the country’s economic situation doesn’t allow political chaos in the country and some middle way could be carved out to go for early elections. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said in the National Assembly that their doors for talks were open but they would not accept the dictation of Khan on the date of next general election.

However, some developments of Thursday indicate that the government was in a hurry to accomplish those tasks that were on its agenda when it came into power last month. The government hurriedly got passed the two bills, from NA, to deprive overseas Pakistanis from voting and to stop use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the next general election. These two bills were part of the government ‘s electoral reforms bill and it had fixed three months’ time frame to negotiate on the proposed laws in the proposed Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms but now the lower house has approved them.

On the other hand, PTI also gave its response on the passage of these two bills while remaining in a very low profile despite its last government had got passed the two laws giving voting rights to overseas Pakistanis and the use of EVMs as part of its lead agenda.

The government also hastily got passed another bill from NA that makes amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 (NAO) that governs the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the anti-corruption watchdog. The law was also on the top of the agenda of the coalition government.

The sources privy to the development said that there are strong indications that the government can move for early election especially after it failed to negotiate a deal with the IMF for the revival loan package. The next two weeks are crucial in this connection, they added.