TAXILA: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Sardar Saleem Haider Khan said the PTI and its chairman Imran Khan would have to wait for two years for the general elections as the National Assembly will take an extension for another year after the completion of its ongoing term in 2023 to fix the mess created by the previous government.

Talking to reporters at Kamra on Sunday, he said the general elections would be held in 2024 because Imran Khan had created such a situation in the country that the government would need more time to fix it.

He said the appointment of the army chief and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee was per merit and as per aspirations of the people of Pakistan. It was a good initiative of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, former president Asif Ali Zardari, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and all the 13 parties of PDM, he added. ‘Unfortunately, Imran Khan obstructed the routine appointment and made a drama in which he failed. Now the economic and domestic situation will improve day by day,” he added.

He was of the view that Imran Khan had made a mockery of the democratic system by making the vicious attempt of exerting pressure on the government about the appointment of the new army chief. He said though the PTI claimed that it had become the most popular political force in the country, Imran Khan still needed backdoor means to come back to power.

The prime minister’s aide added that Imran Khan wanted to influence the media, judiciary and other state institutions to gain access to power.

He said the PTI chairman was accusing the leadership of his rival political parties of corruption but he himself had allegedly “made robbery on Toshakhana gifts received from rulers of other countries.”

He said the Government Boys Shuja Khanzada Associate College Hazro had the faculty of only four teachers for 600 students. The boundary wall collapsed two years ago and there were no drinking water and other facilities for the students which speaks volumes about the performance of the PTI’s three years so-called good governance and reforms in the province.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2022