Shabbar Zaidi claims ‘elections going to be held in April’

Former chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Shabbar Zaidi claimed on Thursday that the general elections are going to be held in April, ARY News reported.

While talking to the ARY News programme ‘The Reporters’, Shabbar Zaidi said that the rulers have realised the ground reality that things are not in their control now.

“Yesterday, traders handed over keys of their industries to the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and now they are planning to start protests.”

He said that elections are also going to be held in Punjab. Zaidi said that it would be tantamount to the political suicide of the ruling political parties to conduct elections separately in Punjab and the Centre.

READ: ELECTIONS ONLY SOLUTION TO CURRENT CRISIS: SHAHID KHAQAN ABBASI

He said that there are rumours that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved the mini-budget. He said that the country needs a strong government for making concrete decisions which will be brought only through the elections.

Zaidi said that former finance secretary Waqar Masood is being appointed as an advisor to start lobbying for foreign funds which could not be brought by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

He said that there is no way out other than organising general elections. He claimed that the economic issues cannot be completely resolved even if Pakistan secures another tranche of loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He said that the United States (US) is willing to make portfolio investments worth $8 billion annually in Pakistan, however, the US investment can only be brought through a stable government.

READ: IMRAN KHAN SAYS PAKISTAN CANNOT AFFORD ANY DELAY IN ELECTIONS

Shabbar Zaidi said that the economic issues cannot be resolved through imposing different genres of bans but to take effective steps to bring improvements. He said that the local industrialists will be destroyed by putting restrictions on the Letters of Credit (LCs).

He said that he is confident that the general elections will be held in April and Imran Khan will be coming into power again. He claimed that the next government will take credit for an increase in the US dollar’s price.