LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has warned that the country was heading towards a default, “Pakistan’s default risk spiked to 64.2 percent and the question is who is responsible for the economic meltdown.”
He expressed these views while addressing the participants of PTI’s ‘Haqeeqi Azadi’ march in Chiniot and Sairi Alamgir through a video link from the provincial capital on Tuesday.
The former prime minister was referring to Pakistan’s risk of default, measured through the five-year currency default swap (CDS) index, which has spiked by 4.2 percentage points to a new high of 64.2 percent.
“When our government was removed through a conspiracy in April, the risk of Pakistan taking loans from abroad was five percent and today it has climbed to 64.2 percent. This means our country lacks resources to meet the growing import payments and foreign debt repayments on time,” he said.
He pointed out that the new figures suggest that there was a high chance that Pakistan will not be able to repay its debts and thus it indicates that the present government has destabilised the economy. “Under this gloomy environment, foreign investors will shy away from investing in Pakistan and no one will be prepared to give us more loans,” he added.
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He blamed the two families (Sharif and Zardari) for the huge loans taken during their tenure. Khan castigated the incumbent government for murdering Pakistan’s economy in the last seven months. He reiterated that when they left the government, the country’s economy was growing and as per the Economic Survey (2021-22) published by this government, all the sectors showed huge growth. “When Pakistan was progressing on all economic fronts then what was the logic behind removing our government,” he added.
He claimed that six months back he had warned the ‘handlers’ that the conspiracy to bring PML-N into power would prove detrimental for Pakistan, adding if Pakistan defaulted it will not affect Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his company, only Pakistan’s national security will be compromised.
“If people still think that the present government can solve the economic issues then I ask them who brought Pakistan to this stage in the first place. The only solution to the economic crisis in the country was free and fair elections,” he added.
The former premier also alleged that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif wants to appoint a new army chief of his ‘liking’ so that he could force him to disqualify him (Khan) from national politics. He again repeated how a convict (referring to Nawaz Sharif) could take decisions on sensitive matters pertaining to Pakistan’s national security. He castigated the incumbent government and the Prime Minister for consulting Nawaz over the new appointment. He believed that Nawaz was not capable of taking decisions on merit as he (Nawaz) will always protect his interests over the country.
Khan once again said the nation was looking to the Chief Justice of Pakistan for justice in ‘three landmark cases’: Arshad Sharif’s murder, Azam Swati’s custodial torture, and the Wazirabad FIR issue. “Mr Chief Justice, we are looking towards you because we do not have hope from anywhere else; it was high time the courts became assertive and stood with the people of Pakistan,” he added.
In his address, he turned his guns to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by saying that the ECP was controlled by the ‘handlers’ and working on an anti-PTI agenda. He accused the CEC of being ‘close’ to both the PML-N and the ‘handlers’, and hence he questioned his impartiality; “Raja only heard cases that were filed against the PTI and all the decisions were against us, which later were rejected by the judiciary”. “How could the CEC pass judgments on us when he has been repeatedly giving decisions against us,” he said, adding that the ECP never hears the cases filed against the PTI opponents.
The former premier also reiterated that true freedom and prosperity can only come through rule of law; “a country is unable to prosper when it forgets its morals, does not provide justice and does not follow rule of law”.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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