PML-N, PPP sympathetic to clamour for early polls in GB.

GILGIT -- The two major opposition parties in Gilgit-Baltistan have reached a consensus on dissolution of the GB Assembly so that the region could vote at the same time as the rest of Pakistan, sources told Dawn on Sunday.

The assembly's five-year tenure will end in November 2025.

A delegation of the PPP's Gilgit- Baltistan chapter called on party leader Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad on Sunday to discuss the matter.

The delegation was led by the Leader of Opposition, Amjad Hussain. Nayyer Hussain Bukhari, the party's secretary general, also attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, Hafeezur Rehman, a former chief minister and head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N's Gilgit chapter, met Amjad Hussain last week to thrash out a strategy in view of a growing clamour in the region for early elections.

According to the PML-N's Aurangzeb Khan, a former law minister, there are two ways to dissolve the GB Assembly.

'One of them is that the chief minister advises the governor to dissolve the legislature, while the other is that the prime minister, as chairman of the GB Council, can approve a summary regarding amendments to GB Order 2018,' Aurangzeb Khan said.

According to the source, the local leaders of the PPP and PML-N had convinced the parties' top leaderships of the need to hold elections in GB simultaneously with the rest of Pakistan.

GB...