Sialkot, Jul 16 (IANS): Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said that his government would hand over the power to an interim setup before the completion of its tenure next month, reports said.

The five-year term of the National Assembly commenced under the then-PTI government on August 12, 2018 and is set to be completed under a PM-Shehbaz-led ruling coalition.

However, the Prime Minister has indicated that the transfer of power to a caretaker setup will take place a bit before the assembly’s tenure runs out, Dawn reported.

Addressing a laptop distribution ceremony in Sialkot, he said: “Our government will complete its term next month. We will hopefully go before the tenure’s completion and the new interim government will take over.”

In his address at a cheque distribution ceremony in Lahore earlier in the day, the Prime Minister said that if given an opportunity in the upcoming general elections, the entire PML-N leadership and party supremo Nawaz Sharif would “change the destiny” of the country by taking it on the path of progress and prosperity.

He said they would accept the public mandate in the upcoming polls and urged the people to take their decisions after looking into certain facts and by juxtaposing the performance of the PML-N governments with that of the PTI’s four years.

The Prime Minister, while lauding the statesmanship qualities of his elder brother, regretted that Nawaz Sharif was ousted from power “despite the fact that he ended hours-long crippling load shedding, provided laptops and loans to youth, brought muti-billions China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) power and road infrastructure projects during 2015", Dawn reported.