Shehbaz Sharif govt will complete full five-year term: Pakistan Interior Minister

Lahore, Aug 5 (PTI): Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday dismissed speculation over the future of the Shehbaz Sharif-led government, asserting that it would complete its full five-year constitutional term.

“There is no question of the government going anywhere. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will complete his full five-year constitutional tenure,” Naqvi told reporters.

His remarks came amid heightened political speculation triggered by his comments last week, in which he publicly criticised Pakistan’s governance structure, describing it as deeply flawed and advocating the creation of new provinces.

The speculation gained further traction after Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari recently claimed that the “countdown of the Shehbaz government has begun”.

Responding to the remarks, Naqvi said he remained fully accountable to the prime minister for his performance and called for an independent third-party evaluation of all federal ministries, including his own, with the findings made public.

Naqvi, who is also the Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), acknowledged that questions had been raised about his performance but insisted that the prime minister alone was the appropriate authority to assess his work.

The minister said he would request the prime minister to order an independent audit of all ministries, with its findings released publicly.

Reflecting on governance, Naqvi argued that Pakistan’s administrative system, in place for nearly eight decades, was fundamentally deficient. “Had the system functioned effectively, the country would have made far greater economic and institutional progress,” he said.

Naqvi said Sharif routinely worked 14 to 16 hours a day and expressed confidence that the government could deliver “a thousand times better results” if the overall governance environment improved. PTI MZ SCY SCY

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)