Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday clarified that there was no possibility of a martial law being imposed on the country.

Talking to Geo News, Iqbal stated: "Imposing martial law would be equivalent to tearing the country apart, which is something that no patriot would ever want."

"The army has clearly stated that it supports the Constitution and democracy," the interior minister stressed. "A martial law will be devastating not only for the system but for the military as well."

Iqbal accused the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf of trying to sabotage the upcoming Senate elections.

"He [Imran Khan] is hoping for an early election, which is why he wants to create chaos so that he can mobilise people and get them to vote for him," he explained,

The interior minister was of the view that personal differences must be overcome in order to counter the "severe external challenges" that the country was facing.

"As the interior minister, I want to tell you that right now the country is facing serious external challenges, and in order to counter them we need to put our differences aside and avoid getting into internal conflicts.”

Iqbal said the incumbent government was aware that the sit-ins staged by the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek in 2014 were engineered by a "certain faction", however, Nawaz Sharif did not take legal action at that time because he wanted to follow a policy of reconciliation.

“It was Sharif's political wisdom that he preferred to maintain stability," Iqbal claimed, adding that any legal action at that time would have been "bad for the economy".

Iqbal insisted that the government's goal was to maintain "internal stability" in the country. He, however, said that the law enforcement agencies will arrest Imran Khan if it was ordered by the court.

He turned down the speculations that Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was going against the PML-N and repeated the party's stance that the former interior minister was only giving his personal opinion.

Referring to the recent controversy surrounding the Election Bill 2017 — that allowed a disqualified person to head a political party — Iqbal said that only the party members had the right to elect their leader.

He went on to say that though the PML-N has accepted the Supreme Court's decision, it did not consider it as fair.