ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday reiterated his party’s demand for early elections to avert economic collapse.
In a televised address to the nation, he said that on March 4, 2022, Pakistan’s risk rating was about five percent, which doubled to nine per cent after the vote of no confidence against his government was tabled.
He said that the country would receive as much as $8 billion after International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement which is not sufficient to bridge the external financing gap.
“We need at least $30 billion which is difficult to arrange as the government has no credibility. This is the reason, Pakistan’s risk rating is 22.7 percent today,” he lamented.
Khan said that he had decided to talk to the nation today as he feared the government had no roadmap to prevent the economy from collapsing.
“The second fear I have is that unless political stability arrives (to the country), there can be no economic stability,” he maintained. “The incumbent government does not have any credibility, both inside and outside Pakistan, especially among the international financial institutions,” he alleged.
He continued that before coming into power, the coalition government had claimed that economic stability would come once the IMF programme was finalised. “The IMF programme approved but we don’t see any changes in the economic conditions of the country,” he added.
He said that the incumbent government agreed to all the IMF conditions, which were the reason behind the skyrocketing inflation in the country. “The country has never seen inflation like this in its history …the rupee is still depreciating and will continue to fall until political stability arrives,” he added. He reiterated that the only solution to steer the country out of the prevailing crises is free and fair elections, asserting that delaying the elections would only lead to losses for the country.
“If anyone thinks that we (the PTI) are facing a loss because of delayed elections, I can claim, that never in Pakistan’s history did a political party have popularity as much as PTI do. If there is one federal party that can unite Pakistan, it is PTI,” he added.
Rejecting the government’s claims that PTI left behind “economic landmines”, he recalled that when his party came to power in 2018, the country’s current account deficit was $20 billion.
He said that “when his party took over in 2018, the current account deficit was $20 billion, and “we left it at $16 billion in April 2022”, adding Pakistan’s foreign currency reserves shrunk to $8.8 billion from $16.2 billion his party had left in April 2022.
He said that the PML-N had left $19 billion remittances in 2018, which was increased to $31 billion when his party’s government was over in April 2022.
Criticising the government’s response to floods, he said that the coalition government did not have any roadmap to cope with the challenges of rehabilitation except begging for money.
Khan said that the prices of fuel and electricity are reaching their all-time high and warned that they would further increase in the near future.
“There is record unemployment, skyrocketing inflation, and businesses are facing closure…the danger I’m seeing right now is our credit rating has fallen to negative which will increase the cost of loans,” he added.
He recalled that before the no-confidence movement, he had warned the “powerful people” that the no-trust vote would directly impact the economy.
“Our risk rating was 5pc on March 4 and as soon as they tabled the vote of no-confidence, in four days it went to 9pc.”
He reiterated that snap polls should be announced immediately, saying economic stability is directly linked to political stability in the country.
“I want to tell my people today that we need to have elections quickly to save Pakistan from this swamp,” he declared.
Referring to the government, Khan said that its “fascist tactics” won’t last long, adding that it was only damaging the country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed.