Imran suggests bringing back looted wealth to address economic woes

Says efforts under way for rigging in Punjab by-polls to ensure rule of Hamza’s govt

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan slammed the “imported government” for plunging the country into quagmire of problems, saying that the ailing economy could be fixed if “Zardari and Sharif families brought back half of their plundered wealth parked abroad”.

Addressing a news conference on Tuesday, former prime minister Imran said that the people were unable to comprehend what had happened to the country in just two months after ousting of the PTI government.

“The PTI is now being blamed for the present turmoil. If this was the case, why did the ‘imported government’ conspire to come to power?” Imran asked.

He said that the “imposed” government compounded the miseries of the masses because they did not conspire to seize the power to provide relief to the people but to exonerate themselves of billions of rupees corruption cases, which was evident from the pardoning of a whooping Rs1,100 billion of their corruption cases by getting NRO-2 through amending the NAB laws.

Imran said, “Inflation is sky-high in Pakistan during the tenure of the coalition government.”

He recalled that the IMF was demanding an increase in fuel and electricity prices, but his government did not bow down to the demands of the funds and continued negotiations. Even the IMF said Pakistan’s economy was on the right path, he added, asking what went wrong in the last two months that every sector was going down.

He asked the ruling coalition: “You put so many efforts in the conspiracy against the PTI but what did you give to people?”

Imran flayed the government for using the police against the people taking to the roads against load-shedding, asking: “Where has the electricity gone?”

Read 'Hatemonger' Imran has divided Pakistanis, says defence minister

He said that in a democratic society, staging protest was a way to convey grievances to the government, adding that the democracy did not function using force but morals.

The PTI chairman said that the country could generate electricity as per requirement but the government, due to mismanagement, did not have the money to pay the power plants.

Commenting on Turn Around Conference (TAC) being organised by the government to gather ideas for steering Pakistan out of the prevailing crisis, Imran said the country would come out of crisis only if half of Zardari and Sharif’s wealth parked abroad was repatriated to Pakistan.

He invited the people to take to the roads in their respective cities on July 2 to stage a peaceful but powerful show in Islamabad, as it would display their mood that they were not ready to accept a brute government.

Addressing the Punjab police and bureaucracy, he said the faces of the police personnel who followed illegal orders of the Punjab government during the PTI’s ‘Azadi March’ were quite clear as their videos and pictures were all available.

He reiterated that fair and transparent general elections were the only solution to steer the country out of the present turmoil, adding that he had never seen a partial Election Commission of Pakistan in his life.

Terming Hamza Shahbaz, an illegal Punjab chief minister, Imran said efforts were under way for rigging in the Punjab by-polls to ensure the rule of Hamza’s government.