PAKISTAN PM SHEHBAZ ANNOUNCES TO HAND OVER POWER TO CARETAKER SETUP NEXT MONTH

Thu 13 July 2023:

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in an address to the nation on Thursday, said the incumbent government would hand over the reins to the caretaker set-up in August.

Sharif’s televised address to the nation and announcement of the caretaker government came three months before the general elections in October.

He, however, did not clear the confusion about whether the coalition partners would go for the normal dissolution of the National Assembly (NA) on completion of its term on August 12 or he would advise the president for an early dissolution.

The National Assembly’s five-year term ends on August 13, 2018. The National Assembly first elected Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), as prime minister on August 18, 2018, but removed his government through a no-confidence vote in April last year and then elected Sharif to the coveted position.

According to the country’s Constitution, the lower house is elected for a five-year term, and before new elections, an apolitical setup is installed with the mandate to hold fresh elections.

Sharif maintained that the incumbent government, in mere 15 months of its brief tenure, cleaned the “rubble of destruction”, which he said was a work of the PTI over the last four years.

“We cleaned the landmines laid in the way of Pakistan’s interests” and “doused the fire” that erupted because of “mismanagement, inefficiency and conspiracy in running the affairs of the country, including the economy and foreign affairs”, the PM said.

He said he was given the “sacred responsibility” of running the country by the nation as the prime minister in April last year. “We will return this responsibility in August 2023 to the caretaker government,” he maintained.

Furthermore, he appreciated the efforts of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and army chief Gen Asim Munir.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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