Long march date to be announced soon: Imran Khan

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan stated on Wednesday that the date for the next long march would be announced soon and the “nation will witness a historic protest in the next few days.”

Addressing the PTI National Council, he cited that PTI was the sole federal party and it would unite the nation. “Pakistan will witness a huge protest very soon,” he said.

He also added that democracy has never evolved in Pakistan due to dynastic politics. He noted that democracy was a better model to rule as opposed to monarchs because it was based on merit.

“While Pakistan is a democratic country, its politics has been led by dynasties. In fact, two families have ruled the country for 30 years out of the last 60 years,” he said.

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“PTI is not a dynastic party and my idea is to turn it into an institution,” he said. “This can be achieved once elections take place in the party.”

He noted that elections would enable the party members to choose their leadership. While promising to conduct elections at the first available opportunity, he said that the party had failed twice before.

Dynastic politics caused economic turmoil

Khan emphasised that Pakistan’s economy was in shambles because two families had ruled it for about 30 years.

“Today, electricity load shedding and water shortage in the agriculture sector are two main problems of Pakistan,” he said. “To resolve them, we kick-started work on 10 dams. The credit ratings of 2 big dams were strong and the government secured loans for them without giving sovereign guarantees.”

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He regretted that Moody’s had recently reduced Pakistan’s credit rating and the rating of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) had also declined after the present government removed its chairman Muzammil Hussain.

“We made efforts to double water availability during next 7-8 years. Now, all these projects will be in jeopardy and the government will not get loans for them,” he said. “Even if it gets loans, the interest rate would be very high.”

An economy that was growing at a robust 6% rate despite the outbreak of Covid is now declining, he said, adding that inflation had soared to historic levels in Pakistan.

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In 3.5 years, the PTI government hiked Rs55 on petrol and Rs50 on diesel and the present leadership has raised Rs60 on both commodities in a matter of 10 days.

Similarly, electricity and gas tariffs have been raised as well, he said.

“The current government used to criticise me for inflation and persistent price hikes show that reducing inflation was never their aim. They came to power to close corruption cases,” he said.

He further added that Pakistan negotiated the import of cheap oil from Russia in February, however, the vote of no confidence slowed down the procedure.

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“The present government should have pursued the matter as soon as it came to power,” he said. “India is buying oil at 40% lower price from Russia and while Pakistan hiked Rs60 on petroleum products, India slashed Rs25.”

He highlighted that economic deterioration was only appeasing the enemies of Pakistan.

Crackdown on PTI workers

He further lamented the crackdown on PTI workers and lauded the determination of female members. “Corrupt people came back to power through a conspiracy and spread terror for PTI workers because the public was with it,” he said.

When PTI was in power, it did not create any kind of obstruction for protests, and even the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) protest against inflation was greenlighted by the government, he said.

According to Khan, all state institutions were now being compromised and the Election Commission of Pakistan had lost its credibility.

“The present government will destroy the National Accountability Bureau by appointing its own people. It has destroyed FIA as well,” he said. “Officials are afraid to take action against the Sharifs.”