ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) secretary-general Ahsan Iqbal has said that the discussion of a presidential system of government in Pakistan is a “futile exercise and a wastage of time”.

Talking informally to reporters at the Parliament House on Tuesday, the PML-N leader ruled out any possibility of a presidential system of government in Pakistan, saying: “the problem of Pakistan is not that the parliamentary system has failed to deliver, but it [the parliamentary form of government] has never been allowed to run in its true essence.”

“It’s a futile exercise and the debate has been initiated by those who can never get elected through the popular vote of the people to reach the corridors of power,” he maintained, adding that Pakistan is a federation, having its federating units and it would continue to be run through the parliamentary form of government.

Another senior PML-N leader Khawaja Asif said that the frequent experiments being undertaken in the country was the “real” problem behind failure of the system.

“There has been failed experiments undertaken after every few years and the parliamentary system has never been allowed to function continuously in its true essence,” he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022