ISLAMABAD - Major opposition parties – the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) – expect the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf-led government to fall soon paving way for snap polls.

PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has already asked his workers to prepare for elections while PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has predicted the government’s fall citing the bombardment of crisis.

At a meeting with party workers last day, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the elections were not far away. He urged the party activists to prepare for the polls.

The PPP chief said that the government had failed to deliver and must go as soon as possible to make way for an ‘elected’ government.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif – who is expected to return from London next month - said Transparency International’s ranking of Pakistan on CPI was a proof the governance was more transparent during PML-N’s tenure under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif than it is under PTI that was “selected on anti-corruption” agenda. “Rhetoric, divorced from realities, has a limited shelf life,” he maintained, hinting at early elections

The PML-N leader said reports of surge in sugar prices after deepening flour crisis were worrisome. “Through its flawed economic policies, this incompetent govt is making sure that the poor get poorer and only a select mafia, close to the rulers, lines their pockets at the cost of people. Horrible,” he maintained.

Highlighting government’s alleged failures, PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman said Prime Minister Imran Khan met President Donald Trump in Davos this week but on an important international forum he clearly said his first priority was Afghanistan, not Kashmir.

“Has the government taken a U-turn on Kashmir? Should the pain and anguish of Kashmir not feature first in that scale of priorities?” she said.

The Senator said promulgating ordinances while the house was in session was bad practice and “we have repeatedly said this. We are not here to compete how many ordinances each government passed. There cannot be any legislation while the committees are being neglected.”

She said that the Enforcement of Women’s Rights Ordinance was being laid in the senate after a lapse of 23 days since the commencement of the session whereas Senate Rule 145 (1) required ordinances to be brought not later than ten days after the commencement of the session. The government is clearly breaching this rule. Public interest litigation does not mean you rule by ordinance”.

PML-N stalwart Khawaja Mohammed Asif said that the government had failed miserably to deliver.

“It is a total collapse, economy, governance, infrastructure, day light robberies like Sugar and atta (flour), corruption are on the rise. Where are the voters and supporters of Imran Khan. History will remember him as most corrupt and incompetent ruler. Let’s pray we survive,” he said.

PPP Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira said that Imran Khan should take a u-turn back home before he is forced to quit.

The former information minister said that the government did not need any opposition movement to fall. “They are on the way out as they have failed to fulfil the people’s expectations,” he claimed.Amid the flour shortage, price hike and internal fighting in the PTI, Pakistan slipped three more places on the Corruption Perception Index 2019 released by the Transparency International, adding to the government’s troubles.

The report meant that the corruption was more rampant in Pakistan compared to 2018. It is even worse than 2016 and 2017 when according to Prime Minister Imran ‘the corrupt mafia’ was ruling the country.

Pakistan’s ranking dropped from 117 in 2018 to 120 out of 180 countries on the CPI-2019.