Is Imran Khan Headed for Victory? Shahbaz Sharif Government's Plan To Delay Punjab Elections Likely To Fail As Pakistan SC Prepares to Announce Verdict

The Supreme Court of Pakistan headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Umar Ata Bandial, will hear the case on Thursday (27 April) relating to the delay the elections in the Pakistani province of Punjab.

A three-judge bench, headed by CJP Umar Ata Bandial and comprising of Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, will conduct a suo-moto hearing to issue a verdict on whether the elections in Punjab province should take place on 14 May or should be delayed.

Earlier (22 March), Pakistan Election Commission (ECP) delayed elections in the Punjab province of Pakistan from 14 May to 8 October. The Pakistan Supreme Court has than annulled this decision and directed the Pakistan Government to hold the elections on 14 May.

The SC has also given a chance for all the political parties to hold a meeting on 26 April and come up with an agreement for holding the elections by 27 April.

However, the Political parties didn't held any meeting and the Pakistani government also didn't comply with directive.

In fact, the Pakistani government did every thing possible to delay the elections since they fear that if the elections were to be held now, the political party headed by the former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI), could potentially win the elections.

The Pakistani government, in pursuit of delaying the elections, even went to the lengths of blaming India's policy of no dialogue as a potential trigger for an 'All-Out war'.

They even blamed the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), Indian external intelligence wing, with Pakistan's Defence Ministry submitting a report in the Supreme Court stating that R&AW can cause violence in Pakistan and take advantage of the politically charged political atmosphere in the country and asked the court to delay the elections.

"R&AW has identified fault lines to hurt the federation of Pakistan especially by fanning ethnic issues, water disputes, and the resource capture and monopoly of Punjab and as terrorists say in Balochistan, the colonisation by Punjab," said the report.

“Therefore, holding of general elections of Punjab Assembly would fuel the situation,” adding that the terrorist threat might increase in the immediate future and decrease only around October 2023.

The Pakistani Defence Ministry added, "Pakistan would continue to be a victim of a Global Great Game, where India enjoys primacy with the permissive environment to hurt Pakistan through terrorism, targeting Chinese interests in the country".

"Pakistan is threatened not only by insecurity due to external aggression but also by internal instability. Both are interlinked. Internal chaos invites external aggression," the ministry further said.

“Therefore, India would continue with strategic coercion including through terrorism in Pakistan and exploit any opportunity at the operational/tactical level for limited military action to all-out war".