By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday his government would hand over power to an interim setup before term expires next month, as he prepares for a general election that could see his party return to power.
Sharif, who leads a coalition government that came to power April last year, said he hoped to leave office before the five-year term of the National Assembly expires on Aug. 12.
“Our government will complete its term next month. We will hopefully go before the tenure’s completion and the new interim government will take over,” he said at a laptop distribution ceremony in Sialkot, a city in Punjab province.
Pakistan is expected to hold its next general election in late 2023. Under the constitution, a caretaker government is appointed by consensus between the ruling and opposition parties to oversee the electoral process and ensure a free and fair vote. The caretaker government has limited powers and cannot make any major policy decisions.
The prime minister has also been locked in a bitter feud with his main rival, Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, who accuses him of corruption and incompetence.
Khan, a former cricket star who became prime minister in 2018 with the backing of the powerful military establishment, was removed from office last year by a vote of no confidence in Parliament.
Sharif accused Khan of corruption, incompetence, and political vendetta, and said he failed to deliver on his promises of reform and accountability.
“Imran Khan had a phobia about PML-N leadership and the opposition as day in and day out, he was bent upon putting them in jails with the framing of fake cases,” Sharif said, referring to his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. “He used dirty language and tactics against the state institutions.”
He also listed several corruption scandals that had plagued Khan’s government, such as the sugar and wheat crises, the delayed bus project in Peshawar, and the sale of state gifts to private individuals.
“No one can deny these stark facts,” he said.
The prime minister also praised his brother, Nawaz Sharif, who is living in exile in London after being convicted of corruption in 2019, as a visionary leader who had faced political victimization at the hands of Khan and the judiciary.
He said Khan was granted bail by the courts despite his involvement in various cases, while Nawaz Sharif was convicted on flimsy grounds and denied justice.
“Nawaz Sharif was accused of Panama papers and given punishment in Iqama charges,” he said, referring to a work permit that was used as evidence against him. “He appeared before the courts regularly but on the other hand, Imran Khan was being granted bail.”
He said his party had brought development projects, ended power outages, provided laptops and loans to youth, and initiated the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a multi-billion dollar infrastructure plan.
Sharif said his party would accept the public mandate in the upcoming polls and urged the people to compare the performance of his government with that of Khan’s.
“If given an opportunity in the upcoming general elections, the entire PML-N leadership and party supremo Nawaz Sharif would change the destiny of the country by taking it on the path of progress and prosperity,” Sharif said.
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