LAHORE - Continuing with his trend of levelling charges against the ‘establishment’ for his government’s ouster in April last, former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan yesterday accused it of being involved in ‘political engineering’ for, what he said, weakening his party in a bid to install a ‘weak’ government in the country. “Unfortunately, we have not learnt any lesson from the past as political engineering in the country is still going on,” Imran claimed this while addressing a gathering of his party’s women wing convention in Karachi via video link from his Zaman Park residence here. He said that MQM is being merged, BAP is being pushed into PPP, and efforts are being made to strengthen PPP in South Punjab. According to the PTI chief, the establishment is trying to bring the PML-N into power in Punjab, adding that a “similar game” was underway in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to damage his party.
He reiterated his concerns that Pakistan would be forced to pay a “heavy price” in terms of its national security in order to get a bailout package from global donor agencies.
Imran said he had predicted the current economic crisis seven months ago, but he was severely criticised back then and labelled as a traitor for comparing Pakistan’s situation with Sri Lanka. “I know that this is bound to happen because I know these two families —Sharif and Zardari — who have been looting the country since the 1990s and calling each other thieves,” he added. Imran urged the masses to fight together to lift the country of out of this quagmire, terming free and fair elections the only solution to the country’s woes. “No technocrat setup can get the country out of this quagmire,” he added.
He also called upon all institutions of the country to play their role to save the country, warning that Pakistan was heading towards Sri Lanka-like crisis. He reiterated his demand for fair and transparent elections in the country, clarifying he doesn’t need “anyone’s support” in the electoral process. Imran Khan, who was ousted from power in April last year, lamented about the country’s economic state and called for conducting transparent elections as the foremost solution to the crisis.
Censuring former chief of army staff General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa yet again, the ousted prime minister said that the entire crisis is because of the ex-army chief. Khan has been slamming the former COAS ever since he retired and handed over the military’s command to the new army chief, General Asim Munir, in November last year. After Gen Bajwa walked out of his office, the PTI chairman blamed him for siding with the ruling coalition government in Islamabad and has levelled various allegations against him in his numerous speeches for the past couple of months. The PTI chief added that in vestors won’t gain confidence unless the country stops begging. “The only way is to have a strong government that the business community can trust to complete five years.
He said that a new government, with a public mandate of five years and which would be able to take “revolutionary measures”, was the only solution for the country's woes.
