SIALKOT: A Federal Minister for Defense Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that voting ticket distribution has started and general election preparations have begun.
He while speaking to a convention of workers at the Union Council Neikapura in Sialkot. Former members of the provincial assembly Muhammad Manshaullah Butt, Chaudhry Muhammad Ikram, Babar Khan, Rafique Mughal, Sheikh Ashraf Haider, Chairman of the Union Council of Neikapura, Rana Amjad, Sheikh Munawar, Sheikh Sohail, Malik Humayun, Chaudhry Nawaz, Farrukh Hafeez Butt, and PML-N workers were also present.
Speaking at the convention, Kh Asif said that assemblies would be dissolved after completing their tenure. He said political parties of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would adopt a plan of bringing a common candidate or seat adjustment for the general election. He said distribution of tickets and seat adjustment would commence soon.
The minister said the nation would get an opportunity to exercise its right to vote in upcoming election. He said voters were the source of power for political activists and leaders. He revealed that the reason behind the ouster of the former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief through no-confidence motion was his (PTI chief’s) behaviour with his allies.
The defence minister lambasted the PTI chairman saying that he dissolved the KP and Punjab assemblies despite disagreement by his party members. He said the situation occurred due to Imran’s political wrong decisions. He said the PTI chief made the last attack on the army.
The federal minister said that the PTI chief made so many mistakes that in his depression he made a plan for May 9,” he said. “No one has ever thought in the history of the country of carrying out such attacks on the army installations. It was a dark day in the national history that challenged the state,” he added.
Kh Asif said the PTI played the role of the enemy by attacking martyrs’ memorials and risking lives of law enforcement personnel. This person (Imran Khan) challenged the defense institutions; he would have to pay for it so that if anyone had the misconception that our defense institutions could be challenged, it should be removed. The nation stands behind the guarantor of national defense, he added.
The minister said the PDM took over the government in difficult circumstances. He said the PDM-led government had the choice to dissolve assemblies immediately after gaining power, but it would have deepened the economic crisis and Pakistan would have defaulted 14 months ago. “If the assembly was dissolved, the flow of IMF funds and other aid would have stopped and the country would have defaulted,” he added.
He said after 14 months of struggle, “we saved the country from default and that is why the country is gradually improving.”
Kh Asif said: “I have not seen any worker of any party absconding the way their leaders absconded. But now all fugitives were sitting in the zoom meeting of the IMF,” he added. He said that thousands of rupees of electricity, gas and taxes were stolen. If that theft had continued, the country would could never have become economically stable.
