Victory For Imran Khan? Supreme Court Orders Timely Election Of Pakistan's Punjab Province

Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief, has threatened to take to the streets with his supporters if the Supreme Court's ruling on the Punjab elections is not followed.

The Pakistan Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Ijazul Ahsan have on 4 April declared the Election Commission of Pakistan ruling of delaying the elections in Pakistan’s Punjab province unconstitutional.

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 annulled this ECP decision and directed the Pakistan Government to hold the elections on 14 May.

Imran Khan was addressing the Pakistan population to mark Yaum-i-Tashakkur (gratitude day) celebrations.

The former Pakistani Prime Minister said, “The nation should wait for my call to ensure that the incumbent rulers could not run away from holding elections; otherwise, neither the history nor the future generations will pardon this generation for not waging jihad against the forces undermining the rule of law”.

Calling the former Prime Ministers “Nawaz Sharif” and “Asif Ali Zardari” as the ‘Sicilian mafia’, Imran Khan said, they are now standing against the decision of the Supreme Court.

The Court had earlier decided in their favour and overturned PTI’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly after opening courts at midnight.

Meanwhile, just two days ago, videos of Imran Khan wearing a bulletproof bucket over his head surfaced on social media while he was entering an anti-terrorism court in Lahore.

Many Twitter observers mocked Imran Khan’s “bulletproof bucket”, saying “That's the stupidest kind of security I've seen'' and ''This can't be real'.

However, Khan was granted bail in the three Anti-terrorism court cases. His bail was extended till 13 April. 

The former Prime Minister is also facing corruption charges in the Toshakhana case as well. He is accused of illegally selling presents he received during his tenure as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018-2022.