The united government’s game plan is to bring electoral and NAB reforms ahead of the general elections and the target may take three or four months, said PPP Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari.

Zardari said this during a press conference in Karachi on Wednesday.

“The Pakistan People’s Party has taken the decision regarding upcoming election in consultation with the leadership of the PML-N,” he said, adding all political parties in the Parliament are on board related to the polls.

Zardari slammed Imran Khan’s idea of immediate elections and said the former prime minister had not achieved any progress in the country in his four-year rule. “Why is he demanding immediate elections now?”

’Out-of-the-box solutions to revive economy

He said that the coalition government wants to lessen the burden on the common people which is why the government does not intend to raise fuel prices. “Increase in oil prices will lead to inflation and cause further difficulty for the common Pakistani.”

The country is facing a difficult situation due to the International Monetary Fund’s tough conditions, he added.

The PPP co-chairperson emphasised the need for out-of-the-box solutions for the revival of the economy. He suggested partial privatization of State Life Insurance to raise money for the government.

Voting rights to overseas Pakistanis

Zardari said overseas Pakistanis are not aware of the groundrealities in Pakistan. He said that the consultations would be held with other political parties to determine the number of seats in the parliament will be allotted to expatriates.“

The number of seats allotted to the expats would be decided, for example, as per the percentage of each political party’s seats in the National Assembly.

“Pervaiz Musharraf and BB’s assassination”

Zardari gave a reference to Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and said the PPP’s workers and leaders never initiated a campaign against Pervaiz Musharraf. He wondered why the anti-army campaigns were ongoing on social media after the ouster of a prime minister through a political process.

“I want to see him [Musharraf] alive here [in Pakistan] so he could see what would be the scenario post-assassination.”

He reiterated the slogan of “Pakistan Khappey” after the assassination of Benazir and said the situation would be different if “he [Zardari] had not raised that slogan”.

Q/A session

He challenged the former prime minister Imran Khan to contest election from Sindh in response to the Imran’s remarks during his address in Jhelum where he said that he was coming to Sindh while warning Zardari to ‘be prepared’.