General elections will be held at any date in the first 10 days of November this year, Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan said on Saturday.
“All the parties in the PDM are of the view that the assemblies should be dissolved before August 12,” he said at Shaukat Piracha Aaj News show Rubaroo. “The assemblies will be dissolved before August 12 and general elections will be held on time according to the Constitution of Pakistan.”
While discussing the International Monetary Fund team’s meeting with the PTI regarding the government’s recent Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF, he claimed that it was unusual for the global lender to meet the political parties.
“If US government officials want to meet the opposition leaders, they can after the foreign office approves the meeting. But I do not understand why the IMF wants to meet political parties,” he added.
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He also said that the former PTI government paved the way for the IMF to “interfere” in the country’s internal matters.
He was of the view that the PTI can “sacrifice anything for its interest”. “They agreed to the Anti-Money Laundering Act with the IMF and shared all the details of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.”
To a question regarding the Toshakhana criminal case against PTI’s chief Imran Khan, Dastgir said that the same party would demand everyone to appear before the court in cases and prove innocence.
“Now when they are asked to prove their innocence, they are trying to dodge the court proceedings by filing several petitions,” Khan said.
An Islamabad judge declared the Toshakhana criminal case against Khan ‘maintainable’ as the PTI chief failed to show up before the court, either in person or through a lawyer.
The PTI chief was seeking the dismissal of the criminal case filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan under the Election Act 2017.
During the hearing, Additional District and Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar also remarked that the court was unusually soft on the PTI chief. He allowed the PTI lawyer several hours to appear before the court.
