LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that a ‘cabal of crooks’ was reaping the benefits of a ‘NRO-2’ as every criminal was getting dry-cleaned.
In a press conference here on Sunday at his Zaman Park residence, he claimed that Pakistan was rising economically when ‘regime-change operation’ was enforced and his government was toppled through a ‘conspiracy’.
“The first NRO was granted by General Musharraf and the second one was given by the one who was in power,” he said.
He said that the country was bearing the brunt of the conspiracy and the cabal of crooks was ruling the people.
The former prime minister said that the ruling coalition doesn’t want elections in Pakistan as it can foresee their defeat against PTI.
“They want my disqualification by any means,” he added and said that such decision against him would only bring more disrepute to ‘institution’. He said that PTI would leave all assemblies in December. He reiterated that the snap elections were the only way out for the country to come out of this economic crisis.
He also criticized what he called duplicity of mainstream media, saying that nobody was talking about the country’s economic condition which was on the verge of default and instead their energies were focused on the sale of his ‘watches’.
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He compared his government’s performance with that of the incumbent PDM government, as he pilloried the rulers on their economic policies, as well as, the looming threat of a default.
He claimed: “If we don’t raise voice Pakistan will experience something it has never before and we are going to default. All the funding from abroad will be stopped. The country debts are rising, while exports, remittances and foreign investments are declining, he remarked.
A default would mean the country’s income in dollars has stopped, and then the rupee will devalue further. The cabals of crooks imposed on us don’t care about any of this. They have been stealing money for the last 30 years. They have stashed huge amounts of money abroad he added.
Imran said that the ruling elite do not care if the country defaults, “because their money is stashed abroad in the form of dollars”. He said that the circumstance of a default is worrying for the common man.
A default will be a very big loss for Pakistan. No investment will come back into Pakistan. No overseas Pakistani will be willing to invest in Pakistan he maintained. He recalled that dollar rate was Rs178 when he was ousted as the prime minister. The purchase of dollar for Rs250 is not possible for the common man today, he added.
The PTI chief claimed that when he came into power in 2018, he had inherited a fragile economy but had turned it around, only to see his work undone by the present setup.
When we came in to power in 2018, we had the largest current account deficit, he said. “When our government was ousted, the GDP growth was at six per cent. These figures are usually only seen during martial laws of Ayub, Zia and Musharraf.
Present government had not made any dams but we made six dams, out of which two were massive. PTI launched the health card that was praised by foreign magazines. Ehsaas programme was internationally acknowledged. The billion tree tsunami was praised around the world. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson mentioned my name and our climate change programme at the UN he said.
“Today, the inflation is double and at a 50-year high. No one cares about the inflation now. When we used to say the inflation is due to global reasons, no one believed us. When these cabals of crooks say the same thing, no one is questioning.”
He said that the PDM government does not have a roadmap to drag the country out of the economic crisis. The economic situation will keep worsening if this government stays in power because there will be no political stability. The economy only grows when there is certainty he pointed out.
He claimed that his victory in the next elections was so certain that the government was running away from polls. They are only trying to delay elections as much as they can, he said. Nawaz Sharif will do anything but he won’t go for elections. They are scared that the cases will be revived when they lose power after the elections.
He said that Senator Swati was arrested and ‘beaten in custody and even in front of his grandchildren’, a part of his house was torn away and locks were installed there forcibly. He continued by saying that because Swati was the subject of multiple cases based on which he was being moved from one province to another, even human rights were disregarded in his situation.
When Imran was asked if he had noticed any change in the military’s policy towards him and his party, he said: “I haven’t seen any change so far. The new army chief is here, and he should be given time. We have heard good things about him. We have a lot of expectations of him.”
In response to another question regarding PDM-led government and allies, Khan claimed that Suleman Shehbaz, a proclaimed offender, who was involved in money laundering cases, was brought back to Pakistan by ‘NRO-2’.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022