LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-N has criticised Imran Khan’s PTI for supporting Tahirul Qadri’s call for reconstitution of the Election Commission and said it has exposed the forces bent on getting the electoral process delayed.

“Imran and Qadri are brothers. The PTI’s demand for reconstitution of the Election Commission has exposed the forces working to get the elections postponed,” PML-N Deputy Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal said at a press conference here on Wednesday.

He said former army ruler Pervez Musharraf in London and Imran and Qadri in Pakistan had been making the same demand because all of them wanted to get the polls delayed to avert their likely defeat. He alleged that the demand carried the agenda of elements who wanted to obstruct transfer of power in a democratic manner.

Mr Iqbal said all the four ECP members had been nominated unanimously and wondered why these parties did not object to their nomination at that time.

He said the legal procedure for removing ECP members and superior court judges was the same.

He said the ECP was an institution working to hold transparent elections with the help of National Database and Registration Authority’s computerised record while caretaker set-ups were going to be introduced soon.

He said the rivals bewildered by the PML-N’s popularity had turned their guns on Nawaz Sharif.

He told a questioner that the PML-N and its government in Punjab would abide by the directives of the Election Commission and the Supreme Court.

Expressing his party’s concerns over reports of harassment of officers investigating the Ogra corruption case, Mr Iqbal urged the chief election commissioner to take a notice of it.

He warned investigation officers of action by the new government if they extended any help to corrupt elements.

The PML-N leader urged the State Bank to place a ban on federal government’s borrowing. He said the government had already crossed the legal limits of obtaining loans and it should get parliament’s approval for seeking more loans.

In reply to a question about Taliban’s talks offer, he said the government itself should give a guarantee because the PML-N was not in a position to do that.