Pakistan PM Sharif to hand over power to caretaker govt next month

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that his government will hand over power to a caretaker government before his tenure comes to an end next month.

"Next month our government will complete its tenure, [but] we will leave before the completion of our tenure and an interim government will come in," the prime minister said on Sunday (16 July).

The 5-year term of the incumbent National Assembly is set to end on 12 August at midnight.

Pakistan's next national elections may be held in November, within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly, according to a Dawn report.

Shehbaz said earlier that the PML-N would accept the public's mandate in the election.

Hinting at the return of Nawaz Sharif to the electoral arena, Shehbaz said that he would "make Pakistan great" if voted back to power.

"Nawaz Sharif Sahib will turn Pakistan into a progressive state if people provided him another opportunity to lead the country," he said.

He accused PTI Chair­man Imran Khan of corruption and victimising political rivals. "He had a phobia of PML-N and other opposition leaders and was bent upon putting them in jails under false cases."

He claimed that at least $3 billion was given out to influential families on easy terms by the Imran Khan government.

Sharif's government took over in April 2022 after leading a coalition of parties that removed Imran Khan from power through a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.