LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Sunday that the country was facing the biggest crisis in its history.

While addressing a women’s convention in Karachi via a video link from Lahore, he said the country could lead to prosperity and decline. He went on to say that the country was at a crossroads going back to the 1990s. He demanded free and fair elections, adding that only with transparent polls, there be the possibility of a legitimate government.

Khan slammed the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), saying that a plan to install the PML-N’s government in Punjab was now under way. He reiterated that there only a strong government could take the country out of the quagmire.

Pakistan facing unprecedented economic challenges: Imran Khan

Speaking about the country s difficulties, he stated that only one person was to blame for the current situation. He also warned that the crisis within the country will intensify in the coming days. “I made a prediction on the prevailing crisis in the country, seven months ago,” he added.

Khan lashed out at the PML-N and PPP leadership, saying, for 20 years, both of these two ruling families had been hurling allegations at each other.

He said that performance of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leadership was only visible in advertisements and propaganda.

Khan lamented that the masses were deprived of flour, claiming that people were losing their lives for a sack of flour, and that people were being forced to flee the country under the current circumstances.

Taking about the coalition government, Khan claimed that the incumbent government came into power to fulfil the agenda of the enemies of the country.

He warned the state institutions that if the situation was not controlled, the country would be dragged into a quagmire, following in the footsteps of Sri Lanka.

He said that the country was experiencing the record inflation in its 50-year history, and that it was not going to stop.

He claimed that PTI is pouring onto the streets for the sake of the country, not the ministries.

Imran Khan said that the establishment had not learned from past mistakes as ‘political engineering’ was still under way in the country.

He pointed out that the rumours of merger of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s factions and Balochistan Awami Party members joining the PPP.

Imran alleged that similar efforts were afoot to bring the PML-N into power in Punjab while a different game was being played in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa .He said that all these struggles were to weaken the PTI.

He further said that a weak setup introduced through political engineering would not be able to steer the country out of the current economic crisis. He echoed the same sentiments about a supposed technocratic government, as well.

He said that a new government, with a public mandate of five years and which would be able to take revolutionary measures, was the only solution for the country’s woes.

PTI wants to bring about a peaceful revolution through the ballot box, he said, adding that Pakistan’s crisis would soon go beyond the situation in Sri Lanka, which is witnessing an economic crisis.

He also talked about the death of a labourer waiting in line for subsidized flour and assailed the high rate of inflation in the country.

Look at the past and see how much Pakistan has lost out on because of the establishment’s political engineering, he maintained.

Imran laid the blame for the current state of affairs on former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa (retd), alleging that he was the powerful man who had played a great role in where the country stood today.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023