ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Sunday said Imran Niazi was responsible for current economic difficulties as he destabilized the country’s system for his vested political interests, committed massive corruption, badly governed, undermined relations with friendly countries and grossly violated agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before the vote of no confidence against him.
In an interview with a private television, he said Imran Niazi damaged relations with friendly, brotherly countries including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and China.
“Imran Niazi falsely accused me of corruption of 45 percent in Chinese assisted projects and damaged relations with China,” he remarked.
He said corruption was rife during the tenure of Imran Niazi and every day a new scandal of corruption surfaced, including
sugar, wheat and Malam Jabba scams.
The prime minister said the coalition partners assumed government in very difficult conditions and with great efforts his government succeeded in securing the IMF programme, after getting consent of Nawaz Sharif.
He said the most difficult matters he dealt with during his government were the revival of IMF agreement, devastating floods, price hikes, restoration of ties with friendly countries and appointment of army chief.
Talking about inflation, he said price hikes were caused by skyrocketing commodity and fuel prices in the international markets and the Ukraine war.
His party saved the state at the cost of its politics, he emphasized, admitting that due to price hikes the popularity of the his coalition government suffered and political capital was exhausted. He said the government brought cheap oil from Russia and now was importing liquefied natural gas from Azerbaijan at a lower cost to provide much needed relief to the people.
He recalled that Imran Niazi did not buy gas from the international market at the rate of three dollars, and the negligence added to the economic difficulties of the people.
He said May 9 was an anti-state activity and was an internal conspiracy led by Imran Niazi and his associates who attacked installations of armed forces.
The incident of May 9 was similar to the attack of Indian air force in February, 2019 which was foiled by the brave pilots of Pakistan Air Force and ended in capture of the Indian pilot Abhinandan, he continued.
The May 9 attacks were organized and were preplanned for more than a year and was an evil attempt and conspiracy to instigate a coup in the army and against its chief, he stressed.
He said Allah Almighty failed the conspiracy as people and army were united, people stayed away from the violent acts and only few groups of thugs violated the sanctity of monuments of army, adding the whole nation was tearful on these anti-state activities against the armed forces.
He said the civilian government and army were on the same page and it was decided that law would take its course and nobody involved in these incidents would be spared. There was intense anger and sorrow in the ranks of army and among heirs of the martyrs because of the incidents of May 9, he added.
Drawing comparisons to the incidents of May 9, he said the attack of 9/11 in the United States led to setting up of Guantanamo Bay. Furthermore, people were prosecuted and given sentences in the United States after the attack on the Capitol Hill in Washington and after riots in Britain.