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Summary A UK-based paper has claimed that Pakistani government has agreed to hold early elections.
According to the paper, Pakistan’s embattled government is preparing to call early elections in an attempt to find a way out of the political crisis that has paralysed the country, as a confidence vote in parliament and critical court cases loom on Monday.At war with the courts, the opposition and the military establishment, President Asif Zardaris administration has agreed to an opposition demand to hold early national polls, but only after the separate election takes place in March for the Senate, the upper house of parliament, according to members of the ruling coalition and its advisers.If the political parties cannot find a way out of the crisis, the threat of a coup remains, analysts warn.There is no other option for the government to come out of the current crisis without elections, said an adviser to the leadership of Zardari, adding that is in its interests to reach an agreement with the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.The PPP rules with three other major coalition partners, but the alliance is looking shaky, with two of the parties, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, distancing themselves from the government.The government is willing to concede elections in the autumn, but Sharif is believed to be pushing for an even earlier date. In order to gain his help in continuing the government, Zardari may need to accept Sharifs demand.A senior member of the coalition said it had so far agreed internally to a general election to be held in October. That would be just a few months before the February 2013 date when parliament would complete its five-year term and elections would have to take place anyway.An early election should placate the courts and military. A supposedly neutral caretaker government would have to be installed to oversee a three-month election period.
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