Imran Khan blames Gen Bajwa for ‘deliberately manufacturing crises’

PTI chief says prices of petrol, diesel will surge if Pakistani currency is devalued against dollar.

Imran Khan blames Gen Bajwa for ‘deliberately manufacturing crises’. As the country is facing enormous economic and political challenges, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan blamed former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa, claiming the uncertainty started the day his government was overthrown.

“Due to the decision of one person, the PTI-led government was toppled and the crisis started,” the former prime minister said while addressing the “Rule of Law” conference via video link on Friday. Khan was ousted from power through a vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly in April last year.

Without naming former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa, he said: “One person decided to change the [PTI] regime and hatched a conspiracy.”

The coalition government, he said, had failed to tackle the economic crisis as “it does not have any plan” to restore the economy”.

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The PTI chief said that never in the country’s history had Pakistan faced a worse economic crisis than the one it “faces these days”.

He insisted that the crises were “deliberately manufactured”. “It is not a natural crisis.”

“Everyone [in the government] is hoping to get money from Saudi Arabia and China,” Khan said, adding that the rulers, in Geneva, requested the international community to provide them funds in connection with the devastation by the environmental changes.

Until the 90s, Pakistan’s economic indicators remained largely positive in the Subcontinent, the PTI leader said, adding that no one could have imagined that the “country’s economy could fall to such levels”.

Referring to the deepening economic crisis, Khan said the country’s reserves had fallen to a historic low, adding, “We do not have money to open the Letter of Credits (LCs).”

“No one is ready to give funds to Pakistan,” he further said.

‘IMF conditions to push up inflation’

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will come to rescue Pakistan only when its conditions are accepted, the deposed prime minister said.

He, however, added that inflation would further rise in the country if the conditions of the international lender are “accepted”.

“The prices of petrol and diesel will surge if the Pakistani currency is devalued against the US dollar.”