Pakistan PM rules out early elections

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has ruled out early elections in the country and exuded confidence that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government will complete its term.

"I am one hundred per cent sure, elections will be held in 2018," The Express Tribune quoted Abbasi as saying to a news channel.

General elections are scheduled to be held in Pakistan on or before September 3, 2018.

Abbasi replaced Nawaz Sharif as the Prime Minister after the latter was disqualified by the Supreme Court in July in a landmark decision in the Panama Papers case.

According to The Express Tribune, Abbasi also told the news channel that the PML-N government would leave a better, prosperous and more secure Pakistan when it completes its term in 2018.

To a query, he expressed confidence that the PML-N government would accomplish all its development projects.

Abbasi maintained that the strength of the democratic system was linked with its continuity and the completion of tenures by elected governments, The Express Tribune reported.

Abbasi also advised Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan to be patient as the public would decide the fate of the government.

According to The Express Tribune, Abbasi also said Pakistan had been fighting the biggest war against terrorism with its own resources and rejected the impression that its campaigns against terrorism were being funded from abroad.

"It's our own war. We have been fighting it and would continue to fight it with our own resources," he emphasized, while also lauding the Pakistan Army for successfully defeating the menace of terrorism.

In July, however, the United States withheld the disbursement of USD 350 million aid to Pakistan after Pentagon chief Jim Mattis informed the Congress that Islamabad has not taken sufficient measures to counter the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network.