Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid has said that general elections will be held as scheduled in 2018 and only local government poll are going to be conducted during the current year.
Talking to a private TV channel on Thursday, he said regardless of the baseless allegations by PTI, the government will continue to work for the betterment of the economy, resolving the issue of energy shortages and strengthening democracy.
To a question, he said Election Commission has possession of ballot bags and only it can order their opening. Even the Prime Minister cannot touch the bags, he added.
About Imran Khan’s statement that proofs of rigging are in bags, the minister said bags were opened in constituencies of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Saad Rafiq, but nothing wrong was found. Rather, this resulted into an increase in the votes for PML-N candidates.
He said proceedings of the judicial commission should not be openly debated and let it reach its own conclusions. He reminded that Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim was also appointed with the consent of Imran Khan, who appreciated the choice. He said no party agrees with PTI’s definition of rigging.