Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir said on Thursday that services of around 130,000 army personnel will be required for conducting population census countrywide.

Addressing a joint press conference along with Parliamentary Secretary for Information and Broadcasting Mohsin Shah Nawaz Ranjha, Dastgir said at present, the Pakistan Army is busy at multiple fronts, the government will ask the Army to help the civilian administration in conducting the much delayed census at some appropriate time.

On the occasion, the leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) asked Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan to shun the politics of sit-ins, rhetoric and TV talk shows.

They further said that the chairman PTI along with his allies could not submit solid evidence before the Supreme Court against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in the Panama Papers case.

Dastgir said, "Khan should now shun the politics of baseless allegations and present proof in the court on all allegations he had levelled against the Prime Minister and his family.

The Prime Minister has time and again made it clear that he will accept the decision of the apex court, while the Chairman PTI was giving the impression that the court has decided in his favour."

Dastgir said that the purpose of Khan's moves is to create hurdles towards government's efforts to put the country on the path of economic development, adding that the government will not allow anybody doing so.

He was of the view that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (EPEC) project was delayed for over eight months due to PTI sit-in in the federal capital during 2014.

-Business Recorder