‘No funds for elections,’ says Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif

The revelation was made during a joint press conference by Defence Minister along side Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb.

As reported by ARY News, Khawaja Asif also criticised the PTI chief Imran Khan and said that his assassination attempt allegation is a lie. He first extended the tenure of former army chief General retired Qamar Javaid Bajwa and now he is now blaming him. First, he blamed the US for his ouster, the Defense Minister added.

The minister further said that Khan dissolved the provincial assemblies unconstitutionally but he was ousted from his seat constitutionally by a vote of no confidence and now he wants to not appear before the courts.

Asif also blamed the PTI chairman for imprisoning the PML-N leaders during his tenure. He said that he was jailed during his three-year tenure and our party leader also faced the courts in fake cases.

Imran Khan is creating crises every day but the government is tackling these crises and Pakistan will come out of all these crises soon, Khawaja Asif added.

Khawaja Asif further said that the former prime minister made a false narrative of US conspiracy but the Supreme Court interfered and saved the country from a constitutional crisis, as reported by ARY News.

The media recently reported that the current situation in Pakistan is the most difficult faced by the country in the last two decades, South Asia Press reported, adding that the country, facing an economic crisis, political chaos, and a rising number of terror attacks along the northwestern areas, has been drained of its resources.

Further, according to the report, the country’s economic deterioration has a direct impact on the public.

The floods in Pakistan came as a severe blow to the cash-strapped nation already grappling with high debt, the South Asia Press reported, adding that the country’s planning commission, agriculture, food, livestock, and fisheries sectors lost USD 3.7 billion in the floods with long-term losses estimated to be around USD 9.24 billion. 

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s former Interior Minister and Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed met close ally Khan in Lahore and discussed the decision of Election Commission on the postponement of Punjab polls, ARY News had reported.

The former Interior Minister also underlined during his talks that approaching the Supreme Court over the poll body’s decision would be a wise decision. Rasheed submitted a petition for the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa elections to the Supreme Court (SC) Lahore registry earlier in the day (KP). According to specifics, the petition named President Arif Alvi, the federation, and the Pakistani Election Commission as respondents, reported ARY News on Friday.

The Punjab by-elections, which were supposed to take place on April 30, were postponed, according to an announcement made on Wednesday by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The ECP decided to postpone the Punjab election and declared October 8 as the new date for elections in Punjab after withdrawing the Punjab Election Program announcement issued on March 8

(With inputs from ANI)