Pakistan Peoples Party leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said that he does not see elections taking place withing 90 days of the assembly’s dissolution.

Speaking to Asma Shirazi in Faisla Aap Ka, Kaira said that the country was stuck between two constitutional requirements. On one hand, the constitution required elections within 90 days but on the other hand fresh delimitations are needed after a census.

He added that the Census on 2017 was declared untrustworthy, so the decision was taken to hold a census after five years instead of 10.

Kaira said that the initial results of the census had led to some reservations but when final results were revealed, the anomalies had been adjusted. He added that ample explanations were given and the latest figures were acceptable to every party.

He said that once presented, it was the government’s duty to notify the results.

Analyst Athar Kazmi questioned how such an important development could be approved by a council where two provinces were represented by un-elected caretaker chief ministers.

Kaira also justified the approval of the census in the very last days of the government and said that a national consensus had been developed which could not be simply disregarded.

He added that with the adjusted census results, no constitutional amendment would be needed before delimitations.

Has democracy gone backward or forward

Asked if democracy had gone forward or backward in the last 16 months, Kaira said that struggling democracies often took two steps forward and two steps backward.

He said that even established democracies were facing challenges, like Trump in the US and Modi in India. He said that populism had not allowed democratic institutions to strengthen and even as the country headed to elections, most parties were looking towards electables.

Answering the same question, Athar Kazmi said that things had both imrpived and worsened for democracy in certain aspects. However, he added that the things that brought the PTI government the most criticism had not changed even under the new government’s tenure.

He said that Bilawal’s statement was an indictment of how the current government had not been able to shake the hybrid model.

Bilawal’s statement

Kaira said that Pakistan had a history of insitutions going beyond their constitutional role and had spent over 30 years under martial law. He said that the tendency of institutions to cross their boundaries would have to be gradually removed.

He said that Bilawal had frankly admitted that the process, though on-going, had not gone ahead as quickly as it should have. Kaira added that Bilawal had spoken on behalf of both his own party and the government.

Asked if Bilawal’s statement was related to the Official Secrets Act and the Army Act, Kaira said that the PPP chairman could himself answer the question.

Kaira added that though controversial legislation had been passed by the parliament, it was encouraging that the laws had been resisted inside the parliament and had to be sent back to committees.

He added that speedy legislation should have been avoided, but it showed that the parliament was ‘functioning’ and not just a stamp house for government. He also attributed the legislation in the last few weeks to pending work.

Caretaker PM

Analyst Athar Kazmi said that the name of the caretaker PM must have been finalised by now, because it was not possible that a nuclear power did not know who would head it as the government’s tenure was ending.

Only the announcement is pending, Kazmi said, whether it is on 24 hours or 48 hours. He said that it was possible that Shehbaz might make the announcement after making a speech on August 14.

Kazmi added that seeing the name of the caretaker PM would further clarify if timely elections are possible.

PEMRA bill

Kazmi said that he had not read the latest amendments to the PEMRA bill, but it was necessary to provide protection to workers and get them paid on time.

He said while there were issues in the bill, the matter of worker rights should be emphasised.

Kazmi agreed that putting PEMRA under parliamentary oversight was a good step as politicans could be held accountable for their actions. He referred to Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb’s recent statement about there being no limitations on broadcast media.