Imran Khan earlier attacked CPEC, now again threatening to call long march: Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD (APP) - Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal Wednesday said the next general elections were not possible before July-August 2023 in the wake of relief and rehabilitation activities in flood hit areas of the country, and delimitation after results of new population census.

“In March (2023), the results of new population census would be received and after that, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would require at least four months to finalize delimitation across the country, so the time frame automatically goes till July-August 2023 and before this, holding of next general elections is not possible administratively,” he said, while talking to the media here.

Similarly, the minister said, the government would remain engaged in the rehabilitation of the flood areas and the people for next six to eight months, so during this period, holding general elections would mean neglecting the poor people badly affected by the recent floods and torrential rains. “If Imran Khan is insisting to announce the date for elections, so I am giving him the date today that next general elections would be held in October 2023.”

Ahsan Iqbal maintained that Imran Khan himself knew very well that the elections were not possible in next six to eight months but he was making fuss and threatening of calling a long march and a sit-in against the government only to sabotage the country’s economy and to demoralize certain institutions.

Imran Khan, he said, tried to obstruct the launch of the mega China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) back in 2014 when due to his sit-in in Islamabad, the visit of Chinese President delayed that resulted in delay of CPEC project by around 10 months. "Now again, he is threatening to call a Long March when the 11th Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) on CPEC-an important decision making body- is going to be held by end of current month," he said, adding that the Prime Minister’s important visit to China is also likely next month, so in this context, any attempt to destabilize the government would dent the CPEC’s progress.

To a question, he said that the senior leadership of PML-N could not participate in the election campaign of recent by-elections because everybody was engaged in the restoration activities in the flood hit areas.

Addressing All Pakistan Chartered Accountants Conference 2022, the minister said Pakistan’s economic growth was halted again and again due to political instability and discontinuation of the economic policies.

He said in 2018, the PML-N government was performing excellent on the economic front and Pakistan’s economy was growing at fast pace, but what he called another experiment was tried which failed miserably.

The minister said the country’s higher economic growth could sustain for longer period only by implementing export led growth policies and achieving the $100 billion export target was a must to ensure sustainable economic growth of the country.

Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan could grab the potential of huge Chinese market as China imports only $3 billion of goods from Pakistan out of its total import share of $2.25 trillion.