ISLAMABAD, JUL 16: As uncertainty surrounds the tenure of the incumbent National Assembly, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced that his government will leave before completing its tenure.

“Next month our government will complete its tenure. We will leave before the completion of our tenure and an interim government will come,” he said while addressing a laptop distribution ceremony at the Government College Women’s University in Sialkot on Sunday.

The statement is contrary to what the PM had said a few days earlier about his government where he had hinted that his government would complete its tenure.

PM Shehbaz back then had stated that the coalition government’s tenure will end on August 14 and the date for the next polls will be announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) either in “October or November”.

The premier’s statement suggested that the incumbent rulers are not contemplating dissolving the National Assembly before its scheduled date which is due to expire on August 14 this year.

The general elections take place after 60 days when National Assembly completes its Constitutional tenure. However, if the government dissolves the lower house of parliament before its constitutional term ends then the polls date can be extended to 90 days of the dissolution.

‘Petrol prices declined due to IMF agreement’
While addressing the ceremony in Sialkot, the prime minister said that the decrease in the price of petroleum products, announced by the finance minister a day earlier, was due to the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF agreement, he also said, strengthened the rupee against the dollar which in turn made the purchase of oil cheaper. He added that the government in turn gave relief to the people by decreasing the price of petroleum products.

Coming to the laptops being distributed to the students by his government, PM Shehbaz said that 100,000 machines will be provided in the fiscal year 2023-24 and the ones being distributed right now are those that were allocated in fiscal year 2022-23. He also thanked Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for allowing the import of the laptops.

“I want to tell the nation’s girls that it wasn’t a favour to give you laptops but is being provided on merit,” he added.

The premier also said that this year Rs5 billion has been allocated for projects related to women. He added that the nation cannot succeed till its women participate in it.

“All girls who get an education must enter the practical field,” PM Shehbaz further said. All over the world women are working day and night alongside men, he went on to say.

“If we get a chance again under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif then every girl will get laptops,” he said.

‘PML-N to change country’s destiny if given opportunity again’
Earlier, while addressing a cheques distribution ceremony in Lahore, PM Shehbaz said that if given an opportunity in the upcoming general elections, Nawaz Sharif and the entire leadership of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), would change the destiny of the country by taking it on the path of progress and prosperity.

The premier said they would accept the public mandate in the upcoming polls and urged the people to take their decisions after looking into certain facts and by juxtaposing the performance of the PML-N governments with that of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) four years.

PM Shehbaz while lauding the statesmanship qualities of his elder brother, regretted that three-time prime minister and his leader Nawaz Sharif was ousted from power despite the fact that he had ended hours-long crippling loadshedding, provided laptops and loans to youth, brought multibillion-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPC) power and road infrastructure projects during 2015.

He said that PTI Chairman Imran Khan, who was brought to power through a “fraud elections”, kept on chanting the corruption during his four years tenure but did not prove them, adding that when he was removed from power corridors through a constitutional manner, he used dirty language and tactics against the state institutions.

According to the incumbent prime minister, the PTI’s tenure was tainted with huge corruption scams including sugar and wheat scams, BRT Peshawar, Malam Jabba, sale of Toshakhana gifts, Rs60 billion money embezzlement returned by the UK agency, etc and said that no one could deny these stark facts.