“The new population census results would be received in March 2023, and after that, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would need at least four months to finalise delimitation across the country, so the time frame automatically goes until July-August 2023 and holding the next general elections is not administratively possible before this,” he said in a statement to the media.
The government would continue to work on the rehabilitation of those in flood-affected regions for the next six to eight months, the minister added. Therefore, he continued, conducting general elections during this time would mean ignoring the impoverished people who have been severely impacted by the recent floods and excessive rains.
“If Imran Khan insists on announcing the election date, then I am letting him know now that the next general elections will take place in October 2023.”
Ahsan Iqbal argued that Imran Khan was only stirring up trouble and threatening to call a sit-in and a long march against the current administration in order to wreck the country’s economy and demoralise some institutions because he knew full well that elections would not be possible in the next six to eight months.
He said that Imran Khan attempted to hinder the start of the massive China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in 2014 when his sit-in in Islamabad caused the Chinese President’s visit to be postponed, which caused the project to be delayed by almost 10 months.
Once more, Mr. Khan is threatening to organise a long march when the 11th Joint Coordination Committee (JCC), a crucial decision-making body for the CPEC, is scheduled to be held by the end of the current month, he said, adding that the Prime Minister’s significant visit to China is also probably scheduled for next month. In this context, any attempt to undermine the government would impede the progress of the CPEC.
In response to a query, he stated that due to everyone’s involvement in the relief efforts in the flood-affected areas, the top leadership of the Muslim League-N was unable to participate in the electoral campaign in recent by-elections.
Meanwhile, the minister said that Pakistan’s economic progress was repeatedly interrupted owing to political instability and the abandonment of economic plans while speaking at the All Pakistan Chartered Accountants Conference 2022 here.
He said that in 2018, the PML-N administration was doing well economically and that Pakistan’s economy was expanding quickly, but that another experiment had been conducted that had failed badly.
According to the minister, the country’s greater economic development can only be sustained for a longer length of time by enacting export-led growth policies, and reaching the $100 billion export objective is essential to guaranteeing the nation’s sustainable economic growth.
Since China barely buys $3 billion worth of goods from Pakistan out of its $2.25 trillion total imports, Ahsan Iqbal claimed that Pakistan might take advantage of the enormous Chinese market.
