Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday suggested the incumbent government will dissolve the National Assembly ahead of the end of its constitutional term, granting the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) up to 90 days to conduct the next general elections.
“Next month our government will complete its tenure. We will leave before the completion of our tenure and an interim government will come,” he told a laptop distribution ceremony at the Government College Women’s University in Sialkot, paving the way for elections to be held in November, rather than October, as would be required if the National Assembly completed its tenure.
During his speech, the prime minister also claimed that the decrease in the price of petroleum products for the next fortnight, as announced by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar a day earlier, was the result of the agreement inked between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It had, he explained, strengthened the Pakistani rupee against the dollar, making oil purchases cheaper, which could then be passed onto the public.
On the laptop distribution scheme, Sharif reiterated that 100,000 machines would be provided in fiscal year 2023-24, while the ones being distributed by him had been allocated for in budget for fiscal year 2022-23. “I want to tell the nation’s girls that it wasn’t a favor to give you laptops but is being provided on merit,” he said, adding that the government had allocated Rs. 5 billion for projects related to women in the ongoing fiscal. He also stressed that no nation can succeed without the participation of women.
“All girls who get an education must enter the practical field,” he said. “If we get a chance again under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif then every girl will get laptops,” he added.
Earlier, addressing a ceremony in Lahore, the prime minister said Nawaz Sharif and the PMLN leadership would alter the country’s destiny if granted power in the next general elections. “Nawaz Sharif sahib will turn Pakistan into a progressive state if people provide him another opportunity to lead the country. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the entire leadership of PMLN would change the destiny of the country by putting it on the path of progress and prosperity,” he said.
Emphasizing that the PMLN would accept the public’s mandate regardless of whichever party emerges victorious in the polls, he nonetheless urged people to vote based on the respective performances of previous PMLN governments and that of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Lamenting that thrice-elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif had been ousted from power despite bringing an end to loadshedding, providing laptops and loans to youth, and advocating for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPC), he accused PTI chief Imran Khan of having become prime minister through “fraud elections.” Maintaining Khan had been unable to prove any of the charges of corruption against his opponents despite four years in power, he noted that since last year’s ouster, the former prime minister had turned against state institutions.
Sharif also slammed the judiciary over its alleged “pro-Imran bias,” noting Nawaz Sharif had regularly appeared before courts while Khan was being granted exemptions or bail in almost every case.