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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Thursday that the next general elections would be conducted by “aliens”, not the caretaker government.
He said consultation with Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah had almost been completed on the issue of caretaker prime minister, adding that no name of any retired army general had been proposed for the office.
“Elections will be held by aliens, but even then we [Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz] will participate in it,” the prime minister said in an informal chat with journalists during a reception hosted by Speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq for members of the lower house.
Mr Abbasi’s words about “aliens holding election” echoed the remarks made by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif two days ago: “Our contest is not with Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan but with the aliens.”
PM Abbasi’s remarks indicate that the ruling party has some reservations over transparency of general elections which are just around the corner.
Caretaker set-up
Talking about the caretaker set-up, the PM said the government would accept any name for caretaker prime minister on which the opposition insisted and the opposition would also respond reciprocally. He said the issue of caretaker prime minister was not so important but it was being given undue importance.
Responding to a question, Mr Abbasi said a retired judge or bureaucrat or a politician could become caretaker prime minister.
He said the caretaker set-up would be installed for 60 days to conduct elections. “Elections will be held in 60 days (after dissolution of the assemblies) as there is no option of conducting them in 90 days,” he added. Mr Abbasi reaffirmed confidence in the leadership of PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif who has been disqualified from holding any public office by the Supreme Court for lifetime. “The future of Nawaz Sharif is bright,” the PM said.
Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2018
Comments (24) Closed
PMLN politicians have completely lost their minds.
He's right. But, it would also be ironic to see the TV media making Imran the next villain, within weeks of his winning elections.
Any thing that goes against nature is bad. The continuing interference by established, non-political forces would certainly put the country on disaster path.
The general elections must be fair and let the people make their choices freely.
This caretaker system should be abolished. We should have full fledged functional government. Elections should be conducted by the Election Commission, which should be strengthened to make it conduct elections. Caretaker system is obsolete and hurting our economy
If PML-N is doubting transparency in elections, then why are they participating in elections.
Dont leave battle field empty... put your maximum... good luck
Well, now they will have to taste their own medicine that they had been prescribing to others all through their political life. So, what's the fuss about? What goes around, comes around.
From the statement of PM one can guess that PMLN has no hoping of getting majority votes in the general elections. So they have already started the blame game.
What they mean is they will not be able to rig elections this time.
Nothing will change if PMLN brings its own person as incharge - people should remember the last election how they got their people selected with utter shame. Even election results are still not clear to this date - people are still hiding behind the court stay orders. PMLN is a shameful reality of Pakistan they should be removed permanently the way they have destroyed institutions in Pakistan. They have hegemonic mindset which does not seem to be changing so better get rid of them by force.
@jawaid in which pmln and ppp will lose
Looks like PMLN leaders have started to anticipate a defeat in next upcoming elections. Sad, now they cannot even install someone like Najam Sethi to cover up their rigging.
"Aliens"? Honourable PM can you please be a little more specific. When "Aliens" were operating on others PML-N government was taking credit for it. Now have a taste of your own medicine. Enjoy. Long Live Pakistan.
@jawaid , right brother. The invisible hand is the cause of all troubles and continuous degradation of Pak economy, democracy, infrastructure, world ranking and above all the cause for rift between and amongst communities.
Yes Mr. Prime Minister. You are almost right. Alien will conduct #Election2018 will be conducted by alien as they did so in #Election2013. It is routine, it is history as usual. No surprise.
PML-N sees the writing on wall and knows that they do not stand a chance in next election, hence start crying foul ahead of time!so pathetic.
why PML-N did not do the election reforms? why Senate elections were held secretly that has given rise to corruption? It is totally PML-N’s own failure that they did not make good laws
Yes Mr P M The same Aliens who helped PML-N win elections in 2013.
This is so ironic that if PMLN is worried about election rigging.. it means that we can expect the most legitimate elections ever in the history of Pakistan...
If PMLN wins 2018 elections, it would say that it won despite manipulations by the aliens and that its margin of victory would have been much higher had the elections been fair. If PMLN loses, it would say''didn't we say so''.
Isn't is ironic that when you win it is fair but when someone else win then it's rigged. You came to power through the same system, if you didn't like it then how come you did nothing to change it. You had 5 years to do something about it but now when the elections are around the corner you have suddenly issues about everything.
If you are right then you are right, fools have no place to lead. You are a fool if you think that everyone is a fool, so...
why are they not behind bars. so much time and money is wasted on an open and shut case.
@N_Saq
Nawaz thinks people will buy his new found mantra that everything good was due to him leading the government and that everything bad that is befalling us is due to him being kicked out from the prime minister house.
He surely must be knowing that he cannot fool all the people all the time.
@jawaid and what do you think about 2013 elections? Were those elections free and fair?