Imran blames 'neutrals' for prevailing economic crisis

Former premier announces a protest outside ECP office on Thursday to push for CEC's resignation

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Monday accused the "neutrals" of the current crises in the country, saying that they didn't intervene when they had to to stop the "conspiracy" against the PTI regime.

"The responsibility of whatever is happening in the country is also on the neutrals as they did not stop the conspiracy against the PTI-led government," Imran said while addressing the PTI's national council meeting.

Turning his guns towards the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the ousted premier reiterated that the next general elections must not be held under incumbent Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.

"The election commissioner must step down," he said, announcing a protest outside the ECP office on Thursday.

The PTI leader said that the top electoral authority chose to oppose electronic voting machines (EVMs) which had been designed to end irregularities and manipulation in the election.

According to the former PM, the election commissioner tried his best to sabotage the EVMs while the system could have ended all future disputes regarding the poll results.

The PTI chief also blamed the opposition parties for the dollar’s unending flight, saying it was also in the interest of some.

“The fact that they don’t value merit is the reason why these political parties have been shrinking,” he added.

Imran also claimed that the incumbent government took the reins of power without any prior economic planning.

A day earlier, the Punjab Assembly passed a resolution, seeking the resignations of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and Election Commission of Pakistan commissioners for their alleged “biasness”.

PTI chief Imran Khan on Saturday accused the CEC and the ECP officials of biasness when they met with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders and discussed the prohibited funding case against the PTI.Intra-party elections.

While addressing the national council members, Imran said the PTI intra-party elections would be held after the general elections by using technology in order to ensure transparency and meritocracy in the party as the PTI became the largest political party of the country.

The PTI chief stressed the need for working on the party's ideology, saying that he realised in these four months that some of the party members were unaware of its ideology.

He stated that the PTI chose its leaders through the Insaf Students Federation (ISF) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in elections.
"We are going to follow the same electoral process as that of the ISF to choose leaders based on merit," he said, adding that the PTI had become a big party as leaders like Murad Saeed had emerged in the PTI through the ISF.

Imran compared his party with the PML-N and the PPP, saying that there was no concept of merit within those parties due to which they shrunk fast and reduced to some specific pockets.

The PTI chairman recalled that the PTI government tried its best to introduce EVMs to ensure free and transparent elections but the CEC sabotaged all their efforts to secure the system of rigging for the PPP and the PML-N.

However, he claimed that despite all this, the “cabal of crooks” gathered against the PTI, but claimed that his party would get a two-thirds majority in the next elections, as “these corrupt rulers will be exposed before the people within few months”.

Berating the coalition government, Imran said that these parties were not interested in rectifying the economy or reducing inflation but were only interested in obtaining NRO-II, ending corruption cases against themselves worth Rs1,100 billion.

He went on to say that senior leaders of both the PML-N and the PPP had been criticising each other since 1988 and joined hands instantly to topple the well-performing PTI government because their only motto was to preserve the looted money as “they have no ideology and are only hungry for power”.

Imran said the “imported government” imposed through a foreign conspiracy had lost its credibility both nationally and internationally to an extent that army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had to request for an IMF loan.

He demanded that an emergency should be imposed in the country at this time so that no one should send money abroad, adding that those who could have stopped the conspiracy were also responsible for what was happening in the country because he was not ousted due to corruption, rather all economic indicators showed that the PTI government was performing exceptionally well on all fronts.

However, Imran said that the current abysmal economic situation of the country clearly indicated that they never came with a plan or a roadmap to stabilise the economy due to which the country was inching towards a default, as “today the coalition government has made Pakistan the fourth country in the world nearing default”.

The PTI chairman said that the public was certainly under the burden of inflation due to the incompetent and power hungry rulers who were busy in getting corruption cases filed against them waved.

Comparing his government’s performance with the coalition government, he said that record tax revenue was collected during the PTI’s tenure, adding that the external deficit was $500 million in March and now it was $2.6 billion.

Imran said, “Inflation in our government was 17 per cent and today it reached 38 per cent.”

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The PTI chairman said that his government provided the most jobs during the Covid-19 crisis. "During our government, petrol was available at Rs150 and diesel at Rs144 and today the prices of petrol are low in the world but the price of petrol in the country is Rs227 and diesel is Rs244,” he added.

He said that Shehbaz Sharif spent Rs50 billion on his self-projection through advertisements while the PTI thought about the future generations by planting billions of trees.

He announced that the PTI would hold a protest outside the ECP Office in Islamabad on August 4 to demand the CEC’s resignation.
Imran said that the K-P and Punjab assemblies had passed resolutions against the CEC, stating that they had lost confidence in him.
“The commission should under no circumstances conduct the next general elections,” he asserted.