ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Iman Khan on Sunday said that the current government is ready to compromise on Pakistan’s sovereignty to seek the US’s help in reaching an agreement with the IMF.
Addressing PTI workers and supporters, demonstrating against inflation across the country, via video link, the PTI chairman claimed that Finance Minister Miftah Ismail met the US ambassador and sought help.
“I want to tell Miftah Ismail and Shehbaz Sharif that the Americans have the philosophy that there is no free lunch,” said Khan before adding that in return of the help, the US would demand something that would “compromise Pakistan’s sovereignty.”
“I am scared that with decreasing remittances and exports falling by 10 percent, we won’t have enough dollars to buy oil.”
He said that petrol prices would not stop here, inflation in the country would rise further and people will know about the “inflationary bomb” when they see June’s electricity bills.
PTI chairman said that people protest for the betterment of their country. He added that democracy gives citizens the right to raise their voices against injustice.
The PTI chairman said that he expects to see inflation to rise further, warning that the people who will be affected by it will be the lower class, salaried class and especially the farmers.
“Today every Pakistani wants to ask what has happened in the country after the no-confidence motion,” said Imran Khan. He added that the coalition government claims that he had left behind “landmines”.
The former prime minister said that the incumbent government says that as the PTI had made agreements with IMF they had no option but to raise prices. He reminded the people that during the PTI’s tenure the ruling parties had launched marches when they had increased prices by Rs12.
“Since they have come they have increased petrol prices by Rs84 and diesel by Rs110. And diesel prices will affect farmers most and our food security in return. This will impact every class and there will be more,” said Imran Khan. He added that people will know about the “inflationary bomb” when they see June’s electricity bills.
“They are in IMF Programme for two months and we were in it for 2.5 years. Did we not have pressure to raise prices? Did we not negotiate with IMF constantly?” asked the PTI chairman.
The PTI chairman said that when the IMF asked his government to raise prices they decreased them as they knew the impact it would have on the people.
“We did it by taking money from here and there. We were in IMF programmes as well but cared about our people,” said Imran.
The PTI chairman said that the coalition government claims that they got a bad Pakistan but in reality, it was not true. Instead, he claimed, that it was the PML-N government from 2013-to 2018 that left a “real landmine” in the form of a ballooning current account deficit.
