Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif have both stated that there is a possibility of a delay in the next general elections.

The government has announced that assemblies will be dissolved on August 9, following which elections should be held within 90 days of the end of the assemblies’ tenure.

However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on August 1 that elections would be held based on the latest census. Although some of the ruling allies, including the PPP, had opposed holding the polls under the fresh census, the Council of Common Interest (CII) on Saturday approved the results of the 2023 digital census.

A day after the CCI ratified the census, making it almost sure that general elections may not be held this year due to the compulsory need for fresh delimitations, the federal government shifted the responsibility of conducting polls to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) within the next three months.