PM Shehbaz says Parliament to decide election date

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Asserting that still a year and two months were left to the completion of the term of the present government, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday made it clear to the former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan that the parliament, and not he, would decide the date for the general elections in the country.

Speaking in the National Assembly (NA), Shehbaz Sharif said if the PTI’s bone of contention were fresh elections, then it should have raised this issue in the parliament. “I want to tell the leader of this group that you cannot dictate to us. If you are so much interested in dictating others, then go home and dictate to your family members,” Shehbaz said while referring to Imran Khan.

The prime minister, however, said that doors for the negotiations with the PTI were still open. “I am ready to constitute a committee for the purpose,” he added. 

He alleged that the country’s economy had reached the brink of destruction due to the last government’s policies. “Has it ever happened that a federating unit has launched an assault on the Center?” Shehbaz asked while referring to PTI’s long march from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). “For how long will this keep happening? Do we have to keep this mischief (Fitna) from spreading further or see the destruction of our country as a mute spectator?” he questioned.

Referring to the killing of a cop after he was fired at by the inmates of a house in Lahore, the PM said his children must be asking about their father.  

He accused the PTI chairman of maligning the state institutions.