Imran says 'mini budget' will accelerate spiraling inflation

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan warned on Wednesday that the mini-budget presented by the government will further accelerate already sky-rocketing inflation in the country,Aaj News reported.

Addressing a televised address, Imran said the current economic situation was inevitable as the ruling coalition was focused on getting their corruption cases closed instead of handling the economy.

“I had warned the military establishment that ‘these crooks’ are incompetent and will not be able to handle the economic and political fallout of the regime change,” he said, reiterating his stance that free and fair elections were the only way out of this quagmire.

He viewed that a government with a real mandate of the people would be able to take tough decisions to fix the economy.

PTI supremo cited Fitch’s report that downgraded Pakistan’s troubled economy to “CCC -”, which means that no commercial bank or country will give loans, or invest in the country.

Imran said during the PTI government, the default risk was five percent, but now the country had reached the stage of Sri Lanka and was close to bankruptcy.

He claimed Pakistan is standing at a crossroads where the nation has to act instead of waiting for more destruction in the country.

He said that the incumbent government was violating the Constitution by delaying elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and announced moving the court against the violation of the Constitution.

The former premier said the ruling coalition was afraid that if elections were held their politics would be finished, which is why they were trying to arrest and disqualify him.

The PTI chief said the PDM-led government just wanted to harass the people by arresting the PTI leaders and said he would soon announce the Jail Bharo movement.