PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry has asked the SC to immediately stop the caretaker chief ministers of Punjab and KP to stop working in their respective cabinets. “Our petition in this regard should instantly be fixed for hearing,” he tweeted, referring to the PTI plea seeking to get the caretaker chief ministers removed after their constitutional terms of 90 days were complete. Fawad said until elections were held, administrators should be appointed to run the provinces, stressing that caretaker governments could not function beyond the 90-day stipulated time. “The Constitution only recognises representatives appointed by the public,” he added.
Despite the SC’s April 4 order on Punjab polls, the government has yet to release the funds and maintains that elections to the National Assembly and all provincial assemblies be held on the same day. On April 10 – the initial deadline set by the top court for the release of funds – Finance Minister Ishaq Dar tabled a money bill in the NA, seeking funds for conducting polls in Punjab and KP. The bill, titled Charged Sums for General Election (Provincial Assemblies of the Punjab and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Bill 2023, was subsequently rejected by the NA.
