ISLAMABAD    -    While the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has been pushing hard for early elections, the rumour mills are indicating another scenario – a possibil­ity of delayed polls.

There has been no offi­cial word on it but there are hints the government members are deliberate­ly leaking rumours to check the nation’s pulse on the op­tion of polls beyond 2023.

This idea may be designed to tempt the PTI to ‘choose the lesser evil’ and agree for the elections around the last quarter of the year.

As a priority, the government wants to drag the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the provincial assem­blies to the end of the National Assem­bly’s five-year term, which will mean general elections sometime in October.

PTI chief Imran Khan is demanding fresh polls to steer Pakistan out of a pro­tracted political crisis. But holding gen­eral elections is a costly affair, and the South Asian country’s coffers are empty.

Imran Khan’s supporters believe that it is the only way to drag the country out of the acute political and economic cri­ses. They argue a fresh mandate for a political party, or a coalition, will do the country good.

Holding elections is not easy. The incum­bent Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government, headed by Prime Minis­ter Shehbaz Sharif, is reluctant to accept Khan’s demand, possibly fearing that the former premier could return to power.

Khan was ousted from office last year by a no-confidence vote in par­liament. He accused the establish­ment and the US of orches­trating his ouster without any real evidence.

In his campaign to force early elections, Imran Khan dissolved the PTI-led Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies but the elec­tions in these two provinc­es too are a far cry.

Pakistan is also facing a crippling economic crisis, with the government struggling to secure a loan from the In­ternational Monetary Fund (IMF).

The economic chaos, soaring infla­tion, and an acute shortage of gas and electricity in the country, has dented the popularity of Prime Minister Sheh­baz Sharif’s government.

Fawad Chaudhry, a PTI leader, recent­ly said the government was making ex­cuses to delay the general election to avoid defeat.

Economic crisis is not the only obsta­cle to holding general elections; the se­curity situation has also worsened in the past few weeks.

Yesterday, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court to hold elections in the national and provincial assemblies on the same date. A citizen, Malik Fais­al Mahmood moved the apex court through his counsel.

The petitioner maintained that hold­ing elections on different dates will have additional financial effects, and could become a risky affair without the pres­ence of security forces.

A day earlier, the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan (ECP) notified October 8 as the date for elections in Khyber Pa­khtunkhwa. Last week the ECP had de­layed the elections in Punjab until Octo­ber 8, suggesting that transparent and peaceful polls on the scheduled date of April 30 were not possible.

Also yesterday, the Senate passed the Supreme Court (Practice and Proce­dure) Bill 2023 amid protest by the PTI. Previously, the National Assembly (NA) had passed the Supreme Court (Prac­tice and Procedure) Bill 2023 after a few amendments.

The Bill aims to reduce the powers of the chief justice of Pakistan over suo motu jurisdiction. Observers believe this Bill could be helpful if the gener­al elections are delayed beyond 2023 on any pretext.

Officially, the government claims it will hold the elections in October. Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that the next general election will take place in Octo­ber after the completion of a population census, urging Imran Khan to wait.

Pakistan carried out its last census in 2017 after a gap of about 20 years, whose results were immediately disput­ed as various political factions claimed the population data in some regions had been deliberately fudged by authorities to meet their political objectives.

“A new general election will be held in October 2023 based on the results of the digital census,” Federal Minister Ah­san Iqbal said at the launch of a train­ing programme for census staff in Is­lamabad this week. He elaborated: “The results of the census will come in April and the Election Commission will then delimit the constituencies.”

The challenge for Imran Khan now will be to keep the pressure on the gov­ernment for early elections but keep an eye on the rulers to stop them from pushing the polls beyond 2023.

There are rumours that some govern­ment members are preparing grounds to delay the polls for a couple of years to ‘improve’ the economy and ‘stabilise’ the law and order situation.

The campaign for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa within the 90 days of the dissolution of the assemblies may soon turn into holding the elec­tions on time for the provincial and the national assemblies. If by any means, the general elections are delayed, PTI will be the main loser.

The unofficial threat of delayed elec­tions may soften the PTI’s inflexibility. In the end, the choice for PTI might be simple - elections at the end of the NA term or no elections at all