Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Thursday targeted the Shehbaz Sharif government over the rising inflation, saying the ruling party was only concerned with getting rid of the corruption cases against them and not for the welfare of the people. The remarks by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chairman came after finance minister Miftah Ismail unveiled the annual economic survey for the outgoing year.
The Shehbaz Sharif government reflected upon the growth for 2021-22, noting that Pakistan witnessed a growth of 6% against the envisaged target of 4.8%.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Imran Khan questioned the current coalition government for carrying out a “conspiracy” to oust his party from power if they were “not prepared” to handle the economy, reported Dawn.
“If they were not ready to handle the country economically then what was the need to conspire against the PTI-led government? If they were not prepared then what was the need, what was the hurry? They could have waited for 1.5 years,” Khan said.
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Fuel prices have skyrocketed after the current government reduced subsidies in a bid to placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package. Khan said the people of Pakistan will “now find out what inflation actually is”, adding that the first thing the government should have done after coming into power was to bring down inflation.
“In three-and-a-half years, we raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs55 and Rs50, respectively. They came and increased prices by Rs60 in the span of 10 days.”
Since his ouster, Khan has been holding rallies and reiterating the foreign conspiracy claim to force the government to dissolve the National Assembly for early elections.
“In my opinion, I don’t think any other government has caused this much inflation in such a short amount of time in our history,” he said.
I don’t know how a normal household will budget their needs, he added.
