Imran Khan attacks Shehbaz, says PM wanted to get rid of corruption charges

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Thursday slammed Shehbaz Sharif government for destabilizing the country's economy and said Sharif led PML-N was only concerned with getting rid of the corruption cases registered against them and not for the welfare of the people.

The remarks by Imran Khan came after Finance Minister Miftah Ismail unveiled the Pakistan Economic Survey (PES) 2021-22 , a day before announcing the budget for the fiscal year 2022-23, on Thursday.

Imran questioned the current coalition government for carrying out a conspiracy to oust his party from power when it was clearly not ready to deal with the country's economy, Dawn reported.

"If they were not ready to handle the country economically then what was the need to conspire against the PTI-led government? If they were not prepared then what was the need, what was the hurry? They could have waited for 1.5 years," Khan said.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan maintained that the people of Pakistan will "now find out what inflation actually is."

While presenting the survey, the coalition government led by Shehbaz Sharif reflected upon the performance of the economy for the outgoing fiscal year, noting that the country witnessed a growth of 6 per cent against the envisaged target of 4.8 per cent.

Speaking during a press conference in Islamabad on the survey, Khan criticised the government for the increase in inflation. Imran said that the first thing the government should have done after coming into power was to bring down inflation.

"In three-and-a-half years, we raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs55 and Rs50, respectively. They came and increased prices by Rs60 in the span of 10 days."

During his address, Imran also highlighted the achievements of the PTI government as he talked about the PTI's focus on creating dams in the country to solve Pakistan's water and energy issues and later lamented that dams started by the PTI government were suffering as the credit rating of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) had fallen, which meant that it was more difficult to take out loans, Dawn reported.

"Our project for constructing dams is in danger. Money is required to construct them and we have no foreign exchange," Dawn reported, quoting Khan as he took a dig at the Shehbaz government.

Khan called the Shehbaz government 'imported' as he said all of their assets are abroad and they don't have a stake in Pakistan.

Following his ouster from power, Khan has been holding several rallies, reiterating the foreign conspiracy allegations and his rebuke of the "selected government" against the Shehbaz Sharif government.

"In my opinion, I don't think any other government has caused this much inflation in such a short amount of time in our history," he added.

I don't know how a normal household will budget their needs, he said further.

In 1997, Imran Khan founded his own political party 'Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Khan contested for a National Assembly seat in October 2002 elections and served as a Member Parliament from NA- 71, Mianwali until 2007.

In 2018, Imran Khan stormed to power in Pakistan by winning 176 votes.However, Imran was voted out of power as he lost the trust vote mandated by the Supreme Court's ruling in April which led to an unceremonious end of his regime.

As many as 174 members voted in favour of the motion in the 342-member House while members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were absent during the voting.