PM calls coalition  meeting ahead of SC hearing

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court is scheduled to resume hearing on the petition calling for simultaneous elections in the nation on Thursday (April 27), so Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called a meeting of the coalition parties to discuss the current political climate.

The meeting will take place on Wednesday at the Prime Minister’s House, and all of the coalition parties’ parliamentary leaders are anticipated to attend. The Punjab elections and dialogue with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would be discussed in consultation by the premier. A three-judge panel that included Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Munib Akhtar gave political parties until Eidul Fitr to agree on a date for holding both the national and provincial elections.

The apex court had also directed them to submit a progress report on April 27 about the meeting of political leaders scheduled to be held on April 26. The bench had issued the directives while hearing petitions seeking elections across the country on the same day, a key demand by the coalition government. However, the PTI is calling for snap polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where it had dissolved the assemblies earlier this year.