Economic woes feeding PM Imran’s panic: Shehbaz

Says PM should rather focus on soaring inflation, not opposition’s meetings

LAHORE:

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President on Tuesday said the underlying reasons for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s rapidly intensifying “panic” was the worsening economic woes and not the opposition's meetings with the ruling party’s allies.

In his interaction with the media after appearing before an accountability court in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case, Shehbaz said, “The prime minister should rather be worried about inflation, unemployment and the country’s worsening economic situation."

He slammed the government over its economic policies and said that the incumbent government had put the country under heavy debt. “The country has never seen such soaring inflation in its history,” he added.

He also criticised the PTI-led government over sugar and wheat scams.

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A day earlier, PM Imran had reaffirmed his “full faith” in Pakistan Muslim League- Quaid (PML-Q) after Federal Minister for Water Resources Moonis Elahi advised the premier to firmly quieten the ‘panic’ in his party.

The statement of the water minister, who is also the son of Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi, delivered a potentially fatal blow to the opposition hopes of ousting the prime minister through a no-trust motion.

Addressing the International Symposium on Pakistan's Hydropower Development in Global Perspective, Elahi had said the political environment was a "bit weird these days but there is nothing [substantial] in it”.

The PML-Q leader’s statement came as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is engaged in a courtship of the ruling party’s allies in an effort to forge a unified strategy to send the government packing.