ISLAMABAD: Terming the latest interview of Prime Minister Imran Khan “a total disappointment”, leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Monday expressed their surprise over Mr Khan’s remarks about the possibility of fresh elections in the country.

In a statement, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said the opposition didn’t need to do anything to topple the government because its “disastrous performance in the first 100 days and the incompetence of Imran Khan and his associates are already doing the job”.

“A prime minister who has given a vote of no confidence in his own government with this statement of early elections does not deserve the top office of the country for even one day, and should resign with immediate effect,” she said.

Ms Aurangzeb, who served as information minister in the previous PML-N government, ridiculed the prime minister’s statement that he had learnt from television that his “pathetic government” had caused another landslide devaluation of the rupee. The PML-N leader referred to the prime minister’s observation that the PML-N government’s finance minster Ishaq Dar had artificially controlled the exchange rate for dollar.

“Either that stance was a lie or his current position is a farce,” she added.

Ms Aurangzeb said that Mr Khan had once again used the “same lame NRO rhetoric” to distract the attention of the nation away from “the massive failures” of his government.

In a separate statement, PPP’s Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said it was very “irresponsible” of the prime minister to talk about early elections.

Senator Khokhar, who is also a spokesman for PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, said it was disappointing that the PTI government wasn’t even trying to solve problems.

“The nation has already paid the price of unpredictability and instability,” he said, recalling that the stock exchange recently suffered a drop of 1,300 points in a day “while Imran Khan is busy making immature, irresponsible and condemnable statements”.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2018