ISLAMABAD: Two days after former premier Nawaz Sharif slammed ‘unknown forces’ for attempting to suppress his party, the sitting prime minister has also jumped the bandwagon, saying the upcoming general elections would be conducted by the ‘aliens’ and not the caretaker government.
His remarks bear complete resemblance to the statement Mr Sharif made yesterday in which he said ‘aliens’ [Khalia Makhlooq] are busy to install Parliament of their own choice in the coming elections.
In an informal chat with journalists during a reception hosted by Speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq for members of the National Assembly, Mr. Abbasi said “elections will be held by aliens, but even then we [Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz] will participate in it.”
The back-to-back statements from top PML-N leaders indicted that the ruling party had some strong reservations over transparency of the general elections due to be held in July this year.
Talking about the caretaker set-up, the PM said the government would accept any name for caretaker prime minister on which the opposition insisted and the opposition would also respond reciprocally. He said the issue of caretaker prime minister was not so important but it was being given undue importance.
The premier said that the government and opposition should reach consensus over a caretaker setup to avoid any disagreement thereof so that the matter does not go to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to install the caretaker government.
Separately, in an interview to the state-owned Pakistan Television, the premier claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz will bag victory in upcoming general election just on the basis of its performance.
He said the party had strong candidates in all the constituencies to contest next polls.
Abbasi ruled out the impression that the government had surpassed the limit of foreign loans and said it stood at 62 percent of the GDP, however the government is striving to bring it below 60 percent.
Asked about the sudden increase in the load-shedding, he explained the government has added above 10,000MW to national grid, however the technical difficulties will remain there.
About Afghan issue, the prime minister said Afghan government has finally accepted Pakistan’s longstanding stance that Afghan issue must be resolved by Afghans and Pakistan could only facilitate the dialogue process.
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