PTI not handing over govt properties to 'thieves': Fawad Chaudhry

• Fawad Chaudhry alleges an attempt is being made to bring Pakistan to the status of a defaulter.
• Says incumbent government must go home in next 48 hours.
• Urges all institutions, military and civilian establishment and media, to support holding of early election.

ISLAMABAD: Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry has said that the PTI will not return official belongings to the administration, The News reported Tuesday.

"We don't want to hand over government vehicles and residences to thieves," Fawad said during an interaction with the media outside the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The senior PTI leader alleged that an attempt is being made to bring Pakistan to the status of a defaulter to "give our assets under foreign control".

Referring to the reports of major political decisions overs the next 72 hours as "crucial", Fawad said that the stated duration was more than enough.

"This government must go home in the next 48 hours, and there should be an announcement about new election," he added.

He emphasised that there was no need for any technocrat government etc, and no (caretaker) government was acceptable for a day after 90 days, adding that a general election must be held within 90 days.

Fawad urged all institutions, including the establishment, both the military and civilian, as well as the media, to support holding of early election, as this was in the interest of the country and people, and that there should be a new government in the next 48 hours.

He continued that Shehbaz Sharif’s son Hamza Shahbaz had become the chief minister on his own and was not recognised by the president, governor, or the speaker. There was no government, governor or cabinet in a province, which has 60 per cent of Pakistan’s population, he said.

“Whosoever imposed this setup on us did a great injustice to Pakistan. The rupee and stock exchange’s fall is continuing and there is no one to care about it,” he added.

The PTI leader said presently there were two finance ministers: one was Ishaq Dar sitting in London, and the second was present in Pakistan. Likewise, there were two PMs: one was an absconder, living in Avenfield Apartments, and the other was facing cases in courts and was on bail.

Fawad claimed they had left a very stable economy with $16 billion foreign exchange reserves, but devastation was caused in a month. “And why couldn't Sri Lanka host the Asia Cup? The reason was it did not have money to import oil, and here also, you would not have money to import oil soon, and LCs could not be opened and there would be no imports, as the country had been pushed to a horrendous economic crisis.”

The country, he noted, had enough of an experiment and repeating the same again and again was nothing but stupidity. He added it was time to send Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet packing and contended they would have to go. “Now the question arises, whether they would go after causing more harm to the country owing to delay, or they would quit right now,” he asked.

About their petition in the Supreme Court against new delimitation of constituencies, he said that the last census was held in 2017; therefore, there was no need for delimitation now and said that if the contention of the Election Commission for new delimitations was accepted, then polls would not be possible even for a year.

He said their petition, itself, was enough to send the entire Election Commission packing, as under Article 218, the Election Commission must be always ready for holding elections. When the Election Commissioner expressed his inability, then all the three members should be sent packing.

“Be it the Election Commission or any other institution, none would be allowed to sabotage the Constitution. Elections must be announced immediately, which should be held in 90 days, and then we are ready to sit with the government for the next framework,” he added.

The PTI leader demanded Shehbaz Sharif apologise for seeking help from the army chief on the issue of petrol prices. “On the one hand, they seek help from the army chief on petrol prices and, on the other hand, they say, they had detonated nuclear devices on their own,” he noted. However, when his attention was drawn to PTI’s governor writing to the army chief for help, he justified it, saying he had sought administrative help.

To a question, he said Rana Sanaullah must go crazy if he was to send Imran Khan to jail, as whosoever would send Imran to jail right now, he would not be able to live in Pakistan, and would have to have a passport of Cambodia or any other such country.