ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry Saturday said party organisations across the country have been directed to stay on standby as party chief Imran Khan will give a protest call within two weeks against rising inflation and delay in holding elections.
Speaking at a presser along with Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid after a meeting of the PTI’s core committee, he said that the core committee decided to give the call to its local cells to stage demonstrations against skyrocketing inflation due to flawed economic policies of Sharif administration.
“If the government still shows reluctance for snap polls, then get ready for a final call in these two weeks as consultation continues. We think workers should await a final call in September end,” he added.
Chaudhry said that the core committee expressed concern about the rising level of street crime in major cities, adding that they had reached an unusually high level.
When I give the call to supporters, this government will collapse: Imran
He claimed factories were closing, 250-300,000 people had become jobless in last four months and one million more people would become unemployed in next few months as the incumbent regime destroyed everything.
He continued that the rupee and market were not stabilising even after the release of funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and criticised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his finance minister - Miftah Ismail - for having no solutions or plans except for crying and screaming in pressers.
“The country will have elections whether the government wants them or not. The ultimate arbiter is the nation and until it doesn’t get the right to make political decisions, the PTI won’t step back from its struggle,” he maintained.
To a question, he said that any technocrat or interim government had no room in the constitution and such a setup would be considered martial law.
He said that it was in Pakistan’s interest to move towards fresh elections without any chaos, but added that the PTI would not be responsible if the situation gets deteriorated.
“Everything that has to happen will happen this month,” he added.
He also addressed the flood situation, saying that the core committee had expressed regret and grief over the destruction caused and instructed the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments to draft plans on how to spend what was raised in the PTI’s telethons on flood victims.
He said that the meeting had also expressed sheer concern at the religious hate-based campaigns against party chief Imran Khan and ordered the PTI’s provincial governments to take notice of them and pursue legal action where merited.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022