Shehbaz demands midterm elections.

ISLAMABAD -- Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday called for midterm polls as he announced his decision to quit as chairman of the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC). in Parliament House, Shehbaz said the party has decided that Rana Tanveer Hussain will be chairman of PAC, and he is bound to follow the party's decision. Shehbaz said his party intends to be the voice of the public and vowed to speak for their rights after the 'anti-people' budget was passed in the National Assembly on Friday. Claiming that he had 'never seen such an anti-public and oppressive budget in the history of Pakistan before', Shehbaz said that expensive medicines used to be free in government hospitals during his party's rule while the PTI government not only raised the prices of medicines but also stopped their free provision in hospitals. He also said that PML-N had decided to resign from the parliamentary committee formed to probe election rigging. 'The rigging committee has not convened for four months therefore we have decided to quit it,' he said. The announcement came a day after the opposition collectively failed to mount a successful challenge to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government's budget for fiscal 2020.

'The only solution to the present situation is a fresh election,' the opposition leader continued. He also backtracked from his position on the 'charter of economy' after his niece and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz's blistering criticism last week of his proposal for the opposition and government to arrive at a common ground. 'I am bound to obey Nawaz...