Opposition getting united to overthrow the government : PM Imran Khan

Lahore : Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday rejected the claim of the opposition parties of his government’s failure and said Pakistan would sail through the difficult times and become a developed nation of the region.

“All the opposition parties are getting united to overthrow the government. But for what reasons? From the very first day, the opposition started the propaganda against the government because they feared continuous revelation of facts by the latter exposing their corruption,” he said while speaking at a ceremony to mark the 23rd Founding Day of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) here at the Convention Centre.

Referring to the money laundering by the Sharif family and fake bank accounts case involving Asif Ali Zardari, the prime minister said the opposition parties were in a hurry to topple the government just to save the public money looted by them.

The interests of Pakistan and those of the opposition, he said, were poles apart. They (the opposition parties) got united in the name of protecting democracy. But they could not get any NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) because it were the previous NROs which caused to rise in the country’s debts to Rs 30,000 billion from Rs 6,000 billion, he added.

The prime minister said Nawaz Sharif had been requesting the court to allow him to get medical treatment abroad despite the fact that his family had been ruling the country for decades but failed to establish even a single medical facility for their own treatment.

He said the PTI government had inherited a country burdened with Rs 30,000 billion debt, which was only Rs 6,000 billion 10 years before. He said he would keep on drawing the comparison for the whole of his five-year stint to make the people know the real situation.

Referring to the criticism by opposition parties, he said no doubt the people were facing inflation. The inflation was 21.7 percent during the first eight months of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government, 8 per cents during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government and 6.8 per cent during the first eight months of the PTI government.

He said Shehbaz Sharif led government left Rs 1100 billion deficit in Punjab against Rs 40 billion surplus left by the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The PML-N government in Punjab even ate up the employees provident fund of Rs 102 billion. He said the difficult time would end when the reforms undertaken by the PTI government came to fruition.

He said the housing project had been launched where five million houses would be constructed and he would launch next phase of it in Okara during the current week.

He thanked Chief Organizer Saifullah Niazi for organizing the event and Senator Faisal Javed for making a documentary encompassing the 23-year struggle of the PTI.

A large number of party supporters, office-bearers, ministers, special assistants to the prime minister, parliamentarians and party leaders attended the event.