LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has accused former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari of setting a plan to assassinate him. In his address on an online video sharing and social media platform here on Friday, the former prime minister claimed that after the failure of the previous two attempts, a ‘Plan C’ has been made to eliminate him and Zardari was behind this. “He used his ill-gotten money, made in Sindh, to pay a terrorist organisation to assassinate me,” he alleged.
Recalling ‘Plan A’, he claimed that after he got to know about the plan, he recorded a video and revealed the names of people behind the plan to eliminate him. “Four people orchestrated the plan behind closed doors to assassinate me. In a public rally, when I announced that the video would be released if something happens to me, the plan was abandoned,” he added. Without naming anyone again, Khan said that another plan was made to have him killed by a ‘religious extremist’ at Wazirabad, but God saved him. “Now, there was a ‘Plan C’; facilitators in ‘powerful agencies’ were involved in this plan along with the people behind the Wazirabad attack. I am disclosing the plot so that my nation should know who was behind these attacks. They should be aware of it so that ‘they’ could not enjoy their lives after eliminating me,” he added.
The PTI chief castigated the incumbent government for the economic woes and said that the lives of labourers and the salaried class had been made miserable due to the country’s worsening economic condition after the regime change. “Following the rupee’s historic fall against the US dollar in the country, hyperinflation and insurmountable economic challenges would follow in days to come. During the past three days, the local unit plunged by Rs 33 against the US dollar. The rupee fell by Rs 84 during the last nine months,” he added.
He further said that the Pakistani rupee extended its downward trend today with the local currency plunging Rs 7.17, or 2.73 percent, against the US dollar in the inter-bank market, as the government eased its control over the currency to convince the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release pending loan tranche. “The country’s foreign currency reserves have reached a record low, which has sunk to US $3.6 billion,” he added.
He lambasted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Federal Minister Ishaq Dar, saying that now he knows what sort of a ‘genius’ they are. He observed that the devaluation of the rupee would increase the prices of essential commodities; “the Consumer Price Index was 12 percent when we left the government and it will rise to an unprecedented 35 percent”, adding that the Sensitive Price Index will shoot to 50 percent whereas in their tenure it was 16 percent.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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