Islamabad -  Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that Senate elections will be held on time.

“I guarantee that the Punjab Assembly will not be dissolved. The PPP will not dissolve the Sindh Assembly either. The PTI (may) go for the adventure to dissolve the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly while the Balochistan Assembly members would also not like that their assembly be dissolved before Senate elections. The Senate elections will be held on time even if it remains an incomplete electorate,” the prime minister said while talking to a select group of senior journalists at the Prime Minister’s House here on Friday. Prime Minister Abbasi said that the National Assembly will automatically stand dissolved on May 31 and the next general election will be held on July 15 or they may be pushed further till July 31 as “there are some lacunas in the Constitution”.

“The nation will be given such a caretaker prime minister that nobody will point fingers at us. The opposition leader will also be consulted in this regard,” said the premier.

The prime minister spoke on a host of issues including domestic and internal and political matters.

He said the government will complete its constitutional term despite sit-ins and protests by opposition parties.

“There is no split within the PML-N. The difference of opinion is natural in every party. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is a senior party member and I will meet him soon. The verbal war and exchange of harsh words between him and Pervaiz Rashid should not have happened. It is a ‘misfire’ between the two,” he said while answering a question.

To a query about privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the premier said: “The privatisation of PIA cannot be deferred till the installation of the next government. The national flag carrier is constantly under loss and it has to bear Rs50 million loss on a daily basis. The PIA earns Rs82 billion annually against the annual loss of Rs45 billion. When I was its chairman in 1990s, it had no dues to pay. Currently, it owes Rs450 billion to the government in dues. It will not be handed over to a preferred group, and instead, it will be sold out through an open tender. If the PIA union opted to, we will give (privatise) it to them. It will be privatised in a fabulous manner and nobody will point fingers at us.”

Answering a question, PM Abbasi said that he had 10 percent shares in Air Blue and nobody should object to it.

He said there was no need for bringing a “contempt of parliament” law as laws already exist and they were needed to be enforced. “This issue could also be solved in the NA privilege committee.”

Answering a question about continuous criticism of the LNG agreement by Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, the premier said, “If anybody has an objection to the agreement, he should sit with me and I will satisfy them.”

“I have a message for Sheikh Rashid. He should (better) sit with me for a debate (Munazra) on the issue. Our hands are clean,” he said.

He said that the PML-N was gearing up for the next general elections and there will be neck-on-neck contest between the PML-N and the PTI. “Both the parties will split each other’s candidates.”

The prime minister said that civil and military leaders were on the same page with regard to relations with India and the US. He said talks with India took place under track-II diplomacy but it was not necessary that every negotiation would yield results.  Answering a question, the premier said that “Baitul Maqdis is the first Qibla of the Muslim Ummah. If a single Palestinian is hurt, the whole Pakistan shivers and the people take to the streets whenever their Palestinian brethren face an unpleasant situation”. The PM said that work on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was going on at a rapid pace and any political instability could dent the development of the country.

He said Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had assured full support to the democratic dispensation and elections will be held on time. Abbasi said the country could not afford protests and sit-ins.

“The 2014 sit-ins put the country’s progress stalled for one year and the Chinese president had to postpone his visit due to the sit-ins.” Answering a question, the premier said that Dawn Leaks issue was a closed chapter now. He also said that Pakistan wanted cordial relations with Afghanistan. “The Afghan government is facing the issue of local networks, Taliban and local fighters,” he said.