Provincial snap elections are not in the national interest of Pakistan given its economic turmoil and security situation, the country's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Monday.
His comments defy an order from Pakistan's Supreme Court last week that mandated the elections and they raise the risk of a constitutional crisis to add to the country's political and economic upheaval.
The court had set Monday as the deadline for the government to issue funds - 21 billion Pakistani rupees ($73.4 million) - to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and told the ECP to report back to it on Tuesday.
Dar on Monday put forward a new financial bill to seek a vote on whether to approve funding for the election.
"The country's economic, security and internal conditions demand that snap polls aren't in the national interest," he said in a televised speech to parliament.
Former prime minister Imran Khan dissolved his local governments in two provinces early this year to try to force the government to hold snap general elections across the country that are not due until October.
($1 = 286.2500 Pakistani rupees)
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; editing by John Stonestreet and Barbara Lewis)
