Dejected PML-N leader Javed Latif has prayed that the incumbent government—a Pakistan Democratic Movement redux—completes its five-year term as the country faced severe economic challenges.

“May God everyone put their heads together and try to bring Pakistan out of the economic challenges it is facing,” he said in an interview with Munizae Jahangir on her show Spot Light aired on Aaj News on Tuesday.

But he compared the ruling alliance with the governments having a simple majority in the past that has not been able to complete their term. “And if a coalition government is formed or made or formed based on a need, may God it completes its term.”

If someone wanted to deliver to the public in the past they were stopped, he said, without taking the names. “The incumbent PM was much obedient. Shehbaz Sharif can have better relations with everyone,” Latif said and warned leaders of repeating past mistakes.

Latif was once considered one of the close associates of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif. In the recent past, he has been vocal about the state of the government in the country and called for “justice” for his party.

Despite having party president Shehbaz Sharif as the prime minister of Pakistan, he is not satisfied and cast doubt on the election results. In more than a 30-minute interview, several times he used the term “pick and choose” to describe the kind of governments ruling the four provinces: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (SIC), Punjab (PML-N), Balochistan (PPP), and Sindh (PPP).

Like the opposition party, Latif claimed that every election in Pakistan has been contended by politicians. He was of the view that votes reflected the sentiments of the people and if they were against institutions then it was “alarming” for the institutions.

The PML-N leader claimed that the verdicts of different cases against former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi facilitated them days before the February 8 elections. He questioned why decisions on cases related to the May 9 and 10 events, when a mob attacked state buildings and military installations following Khan’s arrest, were not announced by courts.

He advised those making vote rigging allegations should “speak the whole truth”, citing that they should also reveal from where they are treated as “beneficiaries”.

Latif refrained from calling the incumbent setup a PML-N-led government, but described it as a “technocrat or national setup”. He revealed that he was among those voices within the party calling for not making the government due to lack of a majority.

When asked who was keener to make the central government, stuck to Punjab if gotten majority, and ally with those they wanted, he said: “The result makers.”

He added that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif was silent for “many reasons” which he would share one day. But he clarified that the former PM was not “depressed” as some experts thought.

Since ending his self-imposed exile, Sharif has not given any interview to any reporter and has not even made a speech in the National Assembly after getting elected as an MNA.

Latif warned that when national parties are dismantled then its results are bad for the state while speaking about the past incidents where politicians have left parties to join other parties or quit politics.

In the show, a clip of PTI leader Sher Afzal Marwat was shown where he told Geo News host Shahzeb Khanzada that any deal for democracy and the rule of law would be held with political forces.

Latif said that justice should be served on cases related to May 9 events. He hoped that politicians could sit together for democracy. But he claimed some forces wanted to destabilise Pakistan.

According to the PML-N leader, election results would have been different if an independent investigation into the May 9 events had been conducted.

When asked why their old allies like Mehmood Khan Achakzai were not with them now, he said that politicians can have disagreements.

“If I had a chance I would have voted for Mehmood Khan Achakzai,” he said about the presidential election in which the PkMAP chief lost to PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.