LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday hoped that the general elections might take place in the country in April, however, the former premier added his party had “no relationship with the new military leadership yet”.
He was responding to a question during an interview with BBC Urdu about PTI’s relationship with the new army chief General Syed Asim Munir and whether the party had established contact with the military leadership via President Arif Alvi.
“Look, we don’t have any relationship with (the new military leadership) at the moment,” the ex-premier replied, who has been critical of the former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa for his alleged role in overthrowing the PTI government.
“Someone needs to ask them why they overthrew our government via a conspiracy despite giving the best performance in the past 17 years. What mistake were we making that they brought down our government in collusion with an army chief. They have not been able to handle it (economy) since then,” he added.
The PTI chief said that he and former finance minister Shaukat Tareen had told Gen (retd) Bajwa that he had created instability to make the conspiracy successful, adding that he had predicted the new government will not be able to manage the economy and he has been proved right.
“The market soon lost confidence in them. They (government) were busy with their theft and taking NRO-2. Chaos soon began to rise in the country. Ask any trader today… is it because of us,” he questioned.
Imran said what General (retd) Bajwa did to the country in connivance with the government, not even the enemies of Pakistan would have done.
“See where Pakistan stood in April [last year] and where it is standing now. They (the opposition at that time) held three long marches during our tenure and kept criticising the government but we continued to progress.”
Earlier in the day, PTI Chairman Imran Khan alleged that “massive foul play” was afoot during the second phase of the Sindh local government elections, adding that such “manipulated” polls would only aggravate polarisation and anarchy in society.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Imran said that recent reports regarding the polls had made it apparent that the PPP had “no commitment to fair and free elections”.
“Instead, it uses force, blackmail, police harassment, money to get votes. Now [it is] also clear why the ECP, its cabal of crooks and their handlers sabotaged electronic voting machines (EVMs),” he added.
The ex-premier said that EVMs ensured transparency and provided results immediately, thereby preventing “rigging and engineering”.
“Right now, results of LG elections which should have come out within a few hours at most were coming out in a staggering delay, some for days, allowing for massive foul play.
“If this is the sort of elections ECP, the state and the Pakistan Democratic Movement want, then the stability that elections are meant to bring will not happen. Instead, such manipulated elections will only cause more agitation, polarisation and anarchy,” he said.
Talking about his party’s current relations with military, Khan stated that his party had no contact with the new military leadership.
The deposed prime minister denies links with army chief General Syed Asim Munir and claimed that the general elections will take place in April 2023.
Blaming former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa for “helping the government in ruling the country”, the PTI chief predicted that the government will now be “forced to hold general elections this April”.
“When they came into power, they ended their corruption cases worth Rs1,100 billion,” he said.
Censuring the incumbent government for the economic crisis in the country, the former premier said that Pakistan’s economic conditions were never like this, emphasising that fair and transparent polls are the only solution to these problems.
“The current government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has come into power through horse-trading,” claimed the PTI chief.
The PTI chief added that the coalition rulers have kept themselves above the law and ended the corruption cases that they were booked in years back. “Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, and Maryam Nawaz — all of their cases have been forgiven.”
He said that in a bid to move towards free and fair elections, his party “sacrificed” two assemblies — Khyber Pakhtunkwa and Punjab. “Now this government will be forced into holding elections in April.”
Explaining the reason behind the ongoing economic crisis, the ex-PM said that no investor or businessperson trusts the incumbent government and neither do foreign investors.
“Pakistan has been plunged into a quagmire. To save the country from a Sri Lanka-like situation, we need free and fair elections,” the PTI chairman said.
Khan said he feared another economic crisis was in the offing as the foreign exchange reserves had depleted to $4 billion and commodities of the same value were stuck at the ports because of the shortage of dollars.
“The prices of commodities are rising, unemployment is increasing, and industries are shutting down,” the PTI chief said.
Pakistan’s economy has crumbled alongside a simmering political crisis, with the rupee plummeting and inflation at decades-high levels, while devastating floods and a major shortage of energy have piled on further pressure.
The South Asian nation’s enormous national debt — currently $274 billion, or nearly 90% of gross domestic product — and the endless effort to service it makes Pakistan particularly vulnerable to economic shocks.
Shedding light on the political situation in Punjab, the former prime minister said that the establishment tried to make Parvez Elahi the chief minister with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) backing.
“Elahi was loyal to us, we had to return the favour and now they will be merged in PTI and become a part of us,” the former premier said.
He further added that “someone should ask them why had they brought down our government through a foreign conspiracy?”
Khan went on to say that the economy under our government was performing very well in 17 years. What were we doing wrong that our government was brought down?”
The former premier maintained that after ousting PTI from power, now they are unable to maintain the economy, adding that “Gen Bajwa was told that if this conspiracy becomes successful then the economy could not be sustained.”
They could not maintain the economic condition and the market immediately lost confidence in the incumbents, the former premier added.
After assuming power, they realised that they did not have any road map for ameliorating the economic conditions of Pakistan.
