How to turn off assertion evaluation with no access to php.ini?

With access to php.ini one can turn off assertion evaluation with:

zend.assertions = -1

In shared hosting often one can only use ini_set:

ini_set('assert.active', '0');

But this setting does still evaluate the code in the assertions. In my understanding it does the same as zend.assertions = 0.

Can the effect of zend.assertions = -1 be achieved when there is no possibility to edit php.ini?

Edit:

Based on the answer I’m adding this remark:

ini_set(‘zend.assertions’, …) is prevented by the hosting company.