Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday that although the federal government had inherited a ‘divided country’ and a ‘collapsed economy’, he ‘did not see any urgency’ for holding general elections earlier than intended.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman made these remarks while giving an interview to Al-Jazeera, during which he said that there was no real urgency to hold early elections as being demanded by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan.
Bilawal said that early elections, instead of furthering democracy, would only ‘further Imran Khan’s personal agenda’. He said that it was more important for the country to complete its five-year term than to hold elections, unless there was a real necessity, which at present he did not see.
The foreign minister acknowledged that at present the government was focusing on seeking solutions to internal problems and consensus at the international level. He said that all political parties must come together as a single unit to fight the challenges being faced by Pakistan.
He also rejected Imran Khan’s claims of a ‘foreign conspiracy’ and said that Khan’s ouster was the first time a prime minister had been removed from office through a democratic vote-of-no-confidence rather than through a coup or court order.
Bilawal also touched on the topic of Kashmir, and said that the space for Muslims in India and Kashmir has been shrinking since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into power.
