ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Tuesday that elections will be conducted by him — and not by the army — at their scheduled time.

“Yes, it is my responsibility to hold elections and not the army’s job,” the prime minister said during an interaction with media persons at Prime Minister Office (PMO).

Responding to a question about recent remarks by Director General of the Inter-Service Public Relations Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor that the Pakistan Army had nothing to do with Senate polls, the prime minister said it was his and the government’s responsibility to resolve issues of the Election Commission of Pakistan to conduct elections.

Ruling out the possibility of early polls, he said the elections would be held at their scheduled time in July even if the opposition came up with a no-confidence motion. “There are only two ways to dissolve the assemblies — either I do so or a no-confidence move is passed by the National Assembly. If they (opposition) have the courage to bring the no-confidence move, they should go for it,” he said.

“The people of Pakistan have given us a mandate to complete our five-year term and we will not go home even a single second before the stipulated time,” he added.

Asked how the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) would enter the election mode when its leaders had been accused of indulging in corruption like it had happened in the last polls with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the prime minister said the PPP entered the 2013 polls with corruption charges, while the PML-N would have a credit of unprecedented development, controlling power loadshedding, improving economy, launching the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, etc.

Mr Abbasi said he did not accept the Supreme Court’s verdict which disqualified former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from holding a public office. “The decision will never be accepted by history as it has also been seen in the case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s controversial execution.”

He said the most eligible, honest and capable people should be appointed as judges and complete information about them should come before the people at the time of their appointment. “A person who is once made a judge continues to serve till his retirement, therefore, the most competent and clean man should be appointed as a judge,” he added. When asked about appointment of some blue-eyed officers from District Management Group (DMG) in top positions, Mr Abbasi said it was the government’s prerogative to appoint officers it deemed suitable. “We have to appoint officers of our own choice because being in the government we have to give results,” he added.

He said not a single penny had been spent on the Gwadar port during the Musharraf and PPP governments. He said now development work was being executed on the port at a fast pace, five cranes had been installed at the harbour and three packed flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) were going to Gwadar in a week.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2018