Constitution will suspend in case polls not held in 90-day: Fawad

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Fawad says no progress in foreign funding case in ECP

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry Thursday claimed if Pakistan did not vote within 90 days after the dissolution of assemblies, it would be a violation of the Constitution — which would stand suspended because of this breach.

In his first press conference a day after his release on bail, the former information minister said on Thursday that “if any administration or authority tries to defer the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa beyond the 90-day period allowed by the Constitution, Article 6 of the Constitution will be applicable on them”.

As per the law, the “unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason”.

Fawad, who is facing sedition charges for publicly “threatening” members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a media talk, was arrested from his Lahore residence on January 25 after a case was registered against him at Islamabad’s Kohsar Police Station. He was released on bail after an additional sessions court in the federal capital approved his bail plea on Wednesday.

During the presser, he also addressed the accusation levelled against the previous PTI government of “aiding and abetting terrorism” in the country through lax policies and leniency — the rhetoric set by the leadership of the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

In the parliamentary session held on Tuesday regarding the Peshawar mosque blast, members of the treasury alleged that the PTI-led government had permitted terrorism to take root in the country again.

Defence Minister Khwaja Asif had come down hard on the Imran Khan-led government for its insistence on dialogue with proscribed outfits — including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — while Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah declared that the previous government had failed to play its part in tackling the issue of terrorism, saying that the ousted rulers allowed people who had been sentenced to death to walk free.

Responding to the aforementioned “accusations,” Fawad said: “You are trying the heap the blame on PTI, however, we had defeated terrorism. During the years that the PTI was in power, Imran Khan handled matters of Afghanistan and the United States in the appropriate manner.”