Asif Ali Zardari opposes calls for early elections in Pakistan

KARACHI: Former Pakistan President and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari has opposed the calls to hold early elections in the country to overcome political uncertainty that has marred the stock market and hindered economic revival, media reports said.

"Last night I spoke to Mian Sahib and convinced him," Zardari told a press conference Wednesday at Sindh's Chief Minister House, Samaa TV reported.

He said that Imran Khan was demanding early elections and the PPP was not afraid of polls, but it wanted electoral reforms before holding the polls.

"In our game plan, elections would come after electoral reforms," he added, Samaa TV reported.

Talking about the electoral reforms bill passed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, he said the law is the entire point of contention.

He said the current coalition government has plans to change the law as it has left the room through which a selected government could be brought in the future.

"We have to do electoral reforms, NAB reforms [and other reforms to fix] the economy [which is] at a brink that people don't even want to give you money," said Zardari.

He said whoever would take the power had to deal with these challenges, so it is only better that the current government deal with them.

Zardari said unless the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme gets back on track, the country would face economic difficulty, Samaa TV reported. He said the government was reluctant to increase the petrol prices as it would lead to more inflation. He also called for "out of the box solutions" to fix the economy. (IANS)

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