Former premier and
Khan on Wednesday expressed “fear”
over discussions of bringing in a technocrat government in the country,
saying he did not see fresh elections happening anytime soon, and noted that
“people pulling the strings behind the scenes needed to agree” rather than the government to hold the polls.
The PTI chief’s remarks came after former FBR chairman Shabbar Zaidi in an interview with
a private news channel on Tuesday maintained that talks were underway regarding the installation of a
“caretaker government” – comprising experts –
that could replace the existing PML-N coalition setup given the current economic turmoil.
The recent statement by Imran
seems to be a
“U-turn” from his current stance wherein he had maintained
and also directed his party to prepare for campaigning across the country.
Talking to a delegation of newly-elected officer-
bearers of the Lahore Press Club on Wednesday, the PTI chairman said that for elections to happen,
people pulling the strings behind the scene needed to agree rather than the government to hold the polls.
“The results will not be good if some sort of political engineering
is.
The former premier said that he was not in contact with
the establishment at the moment and castigated the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for becoming a “drawing
room party”.
He again censured former army chief General (retd) Qamar
Javed Bajwa and held him responsible for the current economic crises in the country.
“General (retd) Bajwa did great injustice to this country. Our government had good working relations with him but corruption of politicians was of no substance to him,” he added.
To a question regarding dialogue with the government
, Imran said
that the interests of PML-N and PPP were abroad and did not align with Pakistan.
“When the interests of both the families – Sharifs and Zardaris –
do not align with Pakistan, how can we agree on charter of democracy with them,” he asked.
On the country’s economic situation, he said that Pakistan was on the verge of default. “During our government’s tenure, the risk of default was only
six per cent which has increased to 90 per cent now,” he added.
PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhary also expressed a similar concern,
saying his party would not accept the
idea of forming a technocrat government
in the country and will strongly resist it.
“We will fully condemn [the idea of] a technocrat government. We will fully condemn going out of the Constitution. Under any circumstances, a system beyond the Constitution is not acceptable to us. Political parties should also focus on this,” he said while talking to media in Islamabad.
The PTI leader termed the idea of replacing the government with a technocrat setup as
“foolish”, adding that political crisis was “more severe” than the economic crises.
interests just to stop Imran Khan from regaining power,” he said.
Speaking hypothetically, he noted, “
You will import a technocrat from the US and have him sit here;
he will take a decision [then] there will be criticism
[and] rallies against it, [after which] he will leave his shoes here and run away,”
Fawad underlined that general elections was the “best solution”, saying that if the government falls, the Constitution had a solution.
He observed that it was a “straightforward matter”
as the Constitution provided a “clearly and precisely written political skeleton for Pakistan”.
The PTI stalwart maintained that the idea of “importing a technocrat from
the US or somewhere” was a result of the “failure of [Prime Minister] Shahbaz Sharif’s government”.
Meanwhile, the PTI chairman tasked fo
chief minister Sardar Usman Buspar to ensure the presence of all 178 members of
the provincial assembly for a joint session of the PTI and PML-Q parliamentary parties.
He indicated that he had already directed PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi to ensure the availability of his party’s 10 MPAs.
It will chalk out a strategy for the success of the chief minister’s
on track by making right decisions and ensuring political stability in the country..
“Experiment of PDM imposition has badly failed,” he said.
He said that the “fear of defeat” had forced the PDM
rulers to “escape even from even councilors’ elections in the capital”.
“The ‘imported rulers’ have no strategy to deal with the current economic chaos,” Hammad said.