Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday reiterated that the incumbent government will complete its five-year constitutional term, adding Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will remain in office for the full tenure.
Speaking with journalists in Islamabad, he emphasized that Sharif would remain the prime minister for five years. However, he continued, he stood by his statement regarding the “collapse” of the system, as initially conveyed last week during an address to the Pakistan Economic Summit.
“The system has been destroyed,” he said, adding he was referring to the 80-year system that has been in place since Partition. “Even today, I maintain that the system that has been in place for the last 80 years is destroyed, because if it had been functioning, Pakistan would have reached new heights,” he said, clarifying this was not a “charge-sheet” against the incumbent government that he himself is also part of.
“If you have a prime minister who works 14-16 hours a day, and if the current situation improves, the results will be a thousand times better,” he said.
According to Naqvi, the incumbent government has increased the revenue of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR); won a war against India; improved its diplomatic standing; and introduced numerous reforms. “I still believe today that if the prime minister had operated within a better system, he could have taken this country forward a hundred times more,” he said, regretting that “certain individuals” wished to sow division between him and Sharif.
He also welcomed an independent assessment of the performance of his ministry.
Islamabad been rife with speculation since Naqvi called for the creation of new “administrative” units after declaring the “collapse” of the present system. His words have also attracted condemnation from several of his fellow ministers, as well as the PPP, which has demanded his resignation for “undermining” the Constitution.