Seeking to force Pakistan to hold early national elections, the opposition party led by former prime minister Imran Khan dissolved its provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday, three days after doing so in Punjab province.
Under the rules, new elections to the two provincial assemblies must be held within 90 days, and Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is gambling on the national government being unable to hold provincial elections separate from the national elections. Which is otherwise due by October.
Pakistan has four provinces, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the northwest and Punjab in the east are home to half of the country’s 220 million population.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Ghulam Ali said he had accepted the resignation offered by the PTI government a day earlier, telling reporters that he had “no other option”.