LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of destroying the economy and asked the rulers to bring back the country’s ‘looted money’ stashed abroad.
In his address through a video link here on Wednesday minutes after the Prime Minister’s press conference, Imran Khan vowed to hold the incumbent rulers accountable after returning to power, no matter what happens. “In the past, these rulers escaped law but in future they would face the consequences for violating the constitution and fundamental rights,” he added.
He said that only thing he understood from the PM’s speech was that Sharif was preparing the nation to be ready for inflation after an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He criticised the government’s austerity measures and told the rulers to stop fooling the people by sharing plans to cut down the number of government vehicles and selling land; “I thought there would a big decision. They must be worried about the nation”.
He warned that the economic situation would not improve with the government’s cosmetic measures; “the coalition government claimed to fix the economic within 10 months, but have actually destroyed the country. Even an enemy would not do what has happened in the country in the last 10 months,” he said.
The PTI chief said that Pakistan was facing a three times higher inflation as compared to the tenure of his government. He held the rulers and their and ‘facilitators’ responsible for all the wrongdoings in the country, including inflation, a failing economy and low inflow of remittances from overseas Pakistanis. “After coming into power, they had only one objective, quashing their corruption cases,” he added.
Speaking about the possibility of upcoming election in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the PTI chief said that the caretaker governments could not exist after 90 days. “If polls are delayed beyond 90 days, then the nation will have to step outside to defend their Constitution. Our goal is to ensure implementation of rule of law and the Constitution in the country,” he added.
The former prime minister, while criticising Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja’s role in not issuing the schedule for the polls, maintained that Article 6 should be applied to the electoral body’s head for violating the Constitution.
At the same time, the PTI chief paid a tribute to his party workers and supporters in Lahore for participating in the PTI’s ‘jail bharo’ (voluntary arrest) movement, which kick-started earlier today. He averred that the nation has become fearless after the launch of the movement from Lahore; “it was initiated to break the chains of fear and the nation was now ready for a revolution”.
He admired the people of Lahore and the PTI senior leadership for giving their arrest. He also thanked the people for being there when he appeared before the Lahore High Court (LHC) two days ago seeking protective bail in the case pertaining to protests outside offices of the Pakistan Election Commission (ECP).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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