LAHORE/ISLAMABAD            -          Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Wednesday categorically said that he has ‘no relationship with the new army leadership. The former PM said that he has no contact with new chief of army staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir. During an interview with BBC Urdu, the PTI leader also claimed that the general elections will take place in April 2023. “This is my prediction that this government will be left with no other choice except to hold general elections in April,” Imran Khan said. Blaming former army chief Gen (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa for helping the government in ruling the country, the PTI chief said that this government was brought ‘through auction not election’. “When they came into power, they ended their corruption cases worth Rs1,100 billion,” he said. Censuring the incumbent government for the economic crisis in the country, the former premier said that Pakistan’s economic conditions were never like this, emphasising that fair and transparent polls are the only solution to these problems. “The current government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has come into power through horse-trading,” claimed the PTI chief. The PTI chief added that the coalition rulers kept themselves above the law and ended the corruption cases that they were booked in years back. “Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, and Maryam Nawaz — all of their cases have been forgiven.” He said that in a bid to move towards free and fair elections, his party ‘sacrificed’ two assemblies — Khyber Pakhtunkwa and Punjab. “Now this government will be forced into holding elections in April.” Explaining the reason behind the ongoing economic crisis, the ex-PM said that no investor or businessperson trusts the incumbent government and neither do foreign investors. “Pakistan has been plunged into a quagmire. To save the country from a Sri Lanka-like situation, we need free and fair elections,” the PTI chairman said. Khan said he feared another economic crisis was in the offing as the foreign exchange reserves had depleted to $4 billion and commodities of the same value were stuck at the ports because of the shortage of dollars. “The prices of commodities are rising, unemployment is increasing, and industries are shutting down,” the PTI chief said. Pakistan’s economy has crumbled alongside a simmering political crisis, with the rupee plummeting and inflation at decades-high levels, while devastating floods and a major shortage of energy have piled on further pressure. The former prime minister also said that the establishment tried to make Parvez Elahi the chief minister with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) backing. “ Elahi was loyal to us, we had to return the favour and now they will be merged in PTI and become a part of us,” the former premier said. He further added that “someone should ask them why had they brought down our government through a foreign conspiracy?” Khan went on to say that the economy under our government was performing very well in 17 years. What were we doing wrong that our government was brought down?” The former premier maintained that after ousting PTI from power, now they are unable to maintain the economy, adding that “Gen Bajwa was told that if this conspiracy becomes successful then the economy could not be sustained.” They could not maintain the economic condition and the market immediately lost confidence in the incumbents, the former premier added. After assuming power, they realised that they did not have any road map for ameliorating the economic conditions of Pakistan. ‘siNDh LocAL GoveRNmeNt eLectioN’ Lashing out at PPP over Sindh LG polls, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Wednesday said massive foul play had been witnessed during the second phase of the Sindh local government elections, adding that such “manipulated” polls would only aggravate polarisation and anarchy in society. PTI Chairman took the ruling party to task, saying that instead of holding transparent elections it resorted to use of force, blackmail, police harassment and money to get votes. In a statement on Twitter, Imran said that recent reports regarding the polls had made it clear that the PPP had no commitment to fair and free elections. “Now it is also clear why the ECP, its cabal of crooks and their handlers sabotaged electronic voting machines (EVMs),” he added. Imran Khan said that EVMs ensured transparency and provided results immediately, thereby preventing rigging and engineering. “Right now, results of LG elections which should have come out within a few hours at most were coming out in a staggering delay, some for days, allowing for massive foul play,” he added. “If this is the sort of elections ECP, the state and the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) want, then the stability that elections are meant to bring will not happen. Instead, such manipulated elections will only cause more agitation, polarisation and anarchy,” he said. Meanwhile, while presiding over a meeting in Lahore, Chairman PTI expressed satisfaction over the preparations for the elections. During the meeting, all the party’s organisations briefed him regarding their ongoing door-to-door campaigns. Imran Khan also directed to complete the organisation at block code level as soon as possible, adding that no delay in election date would be tolerated. The names given by the PML-N for the caretaker chief minister were an expression of their lack of seriousness, he added. Imran Khan said that the task of the caretaker government was to conduct clean and transparent elections