ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, while criticizing the coalition government for allegedly plunging the country into a quagmire of problems, has said that the present rulers were incapable enough to set the country’s economy on the right direction.
He also said that efforts were underway to rig by-polls in Punjab to prolong the rule of Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz in the province.
In a televised address here on Tuesday, former prime minister Khan chided the ruling parties and said that the ailing economy could be fixed only if PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari and Sharif family bring back “half of their plundered wealth parked abroad.”
Khan said that the people were unable to comprehend what happened to the country in just two months after the ouster of PTI’s government. “First they (ruling coalition) created a political crisis by destabilizing our government, which caused the present economic crisis,” he said. He added that now the crisis had become out of their control. He told his supporters that former finance minister Shaukat Tarin and he himself had asked the “neutrals” that the country would have to “pay a big price of this political destabilization.”
He reiterated that fair and transparent general elections were the only solution to steer the country out of the present turmoil. “I have never seen such a partial Election Commission in my life,” he added.
Terming Hamza Shahbaz government as illegal, Khan said it looked that Punjab government would not last long. He said that efforts were underway to rig by-polls in the province to ensure the rule of CM Hamza. Addressing the Punjab Police and bureaucracy, he advised them to avoid taking “illegal steps” against PTI and its workers. Khan mentioned the hours-long protest demonstration against load shedding in Karachi and lambasted the government for using the police against the people. He said that in a democratic society, people used to stage protests to convey their grievances to the government.
The PTI chairman said that the country had the capacity to generate electricity as per requirement but the government, due to its mismanagement, doesn’t have the money to pay the power plants.
“PTI is now being blamed for the present turmoil, if this was the case, then why the ‘imported government’ conspired to come into power?” he asked.