ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Sunday asked Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to seek a “fresh mandate” by holding an early general election in the country after what he claimed the failure of the government on almost every front.

“In order to save and strengthen democracy, you [PM Abbasi] should move towards elections and seek a fresh mandate from the people,” Mr Khan said while speaking at a news conference at his Banigala residence.

The PTI chief said he was making the demand to hold early elections keeping in view “the internal and external challenges” being faced by the country. Interestingly, while Mr Khan called for holding fresh elections he expressed his party’s “no-confidence” in the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Flanked by his deputy Shah Mehmood Qureshi and party secretary general Jahangir Tareen, the PTI chairman said that Mr Abbasi had proved to be a “weak prime minister” and no one was “taking him seriously”. Moreover, he added, the early elections had become imminent after seeing the “performance” of the prime minister in the US and his act of expressing a no-confidence in the Supreme Court.

Mr Abbasi during his visit to US addressed the UN General Assembly and met US Vice President Mike Pence.

PML-N terms demand ‘non-serious’; PPP says parliament should complete term

Mr Khan criticised Mr Abbasi for stating that Nawaz Sharif was still his prime minister. He was of the view that by declaring Mr Sharif as the prime minister, Mr Abbasi had actually expressed a no-confidence in the country’s judiciary as the former PML-N chief had been disqualified by a five-member bench of the apex court.

He also criticised the prime minister for endorsing the statements of his two key ministers regarding “putting the house in order” and alleged that by saying this, the government people were actually approving the narrative being expressed by the US and India about the role of Pakistan in the war against terrorism.

“Why the government had not brought the house in order after four years?” he asked, adding that the government had failed to do so despite the fact that all the political parties had agreed on the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism. He said there were reports that flags of militant Islamic State group had been seen in Islamabad.

“Who is responsible for it?

The PTI chief alleged that the rulers, in fact, wanted to defame the country’s armed forces.

He also lashed out at the ruling party for getting a controversial bill passed from parliament after which Nawaz Sharif could become the head of the PML-N despite disqualification.

“Such a law is a joke with democracy.”

He asked National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to put the names of Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on the exit control list.

Responding to a question, Mr Khan said the PTI was making efforts to get the slot of the opposition leader in the National Assembly so that the party could get a role in the appointment of the chairman of NAB and the next caretaker government.

When contacted for his comments, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said they did not feel any need to make comment on this demand of Mr Khan, saying that the party position was very clear on the matter that the present parliament should complete its five-year term.

Federal Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan said that they did not give any importance to such “non-serious” demands from Mr Khan at a time when the elections were only a few months away.

Meanwhile, when contacted, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that it was true that the next elections would be conducted by the present ECP in which they didn’t have the trust, but said the commission had the time to restore its confidence among all the stakeholders.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2017