Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, elections are to be held simultaneously in the country and for this reason, the government is looking at the decision of the Supreme Court on the by-elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
According to the 24News HD TV channel, Ishaq Dar addressed a press conference in Islamabad on Friday and said KP Governor has already said that elections cannot be held on April 30, but can be held in October or November this year while the elections in Punjab have to be decided by the governor.
He further said that a census is being conducted in the country and elections in half of the country will be held after the census so this thing should be considered in the larger interest of the country.

Dar has taken the criticism of his economic policies seriously and challenged PTI's Imran Khan to send his 'Aristotle' (experts) for debate with him. He said Imran Khan wants the country to default and those thinking of defaulting Pakistan have their own interests.

He advised Imran Khan that it is better for him to keep quiet as there is no on-off button for economic recovery.

He also said that those who brought Imran said, if he had remained in power, Pakistan would have broken up.

Ishaq Dar said former premier Imran Khan has problems not only in his leg but in his brain too as he talked about dropping an atomic bomb on the country.

Ishaq Dar said the country has not defaulted and will also not default in future as they were trying to strengthen the national economy. 
criticizing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman's role as Prime Minister in the recent past, Ishaq Dar said Imran Khan is talking out of facts in his speeches despite the fact that he is responsible to bring the country to the brink of destruction.
The federal finance minister also claimed that these people [Imran Khan and his team] made a conspiracy to stop the sitting government's deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and there is a record of how these people did it.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said Imran Khan left the fiscal deficit at 7.9 per cent while the financial deficit was 19.3 billion dollars in his regime.
He added that during Imran Khan's tenure, the GDP growth came to 3.5 per cent while those who brought and protected Imran Khan are also admitting their mistake now.
The minister said Imran Khan even said that the country will break up.
Ishaq Dar accepted that last year [2022], food prices rose by 14.3 per cent while mismanagement also caused problems in the country.
Anyhow, he said his government need 16 billion dollars for flood victims as Pakistan is importing wheat, pulses and other things due to the flood.