Imran criticises the government and a previous army chief for the falling value of the rupee.
The head of the PTI has stated that Pakistanis are paying a hefty price for the “regime change scheme” of the former COAS.
Imran Khan, the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), criticised the current PDM government and previous army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday, blaming them for Pakistan’s financial difficulties.
The PTI leader has continued to assert after his removal that the no-confidence vote was the result of a “vast foreign conspiracy against Pakistan,” which he blamed on the US.
Imran has recently moved his attention away from the alleged US complicity in his dismissal and towards former COAS Bajwa.
Imran had expressed a desire to engage with Washington in an interview with the Financial Times in November, saying that despite accusing the US of treating Pakistan like a “slave,” he wants to restore relations with the US.
If re-elected, the former prime minister had stated that he no longer “blamed” the US and desired a “dignified” relationship.
Later, in February, the head of the PTI gave an interview to Voice of America and accused Gen Bajwa of conspiring with his political rivals to depose him with assistance from the US.
Later in the interview, he repudiated the claims he had made against the US and firmly blamed Gen Bajwa for his ordeal saying “it wasn’t the Americans who told Pakistan [to expel me]. Gen Bajwa, unfortunately, was the one who managed to convince the Americans that I was anti-American, according to the evidence that has surfaced. The removal plot “wasn’t imported from there. It was shipped there from here.
Imran added that Pakistanis are suffering as a result of the regime change conspiracy, in which a “bunch of criminals have been foisted upon nation by ex COAS,” as he continued to criticise the Bajwa and the current administration.
Imran yelled, “Rupee murdered,” as he stated that the Pakistani rupee has fallen by more than 62%, or 110/$, in just 11 months of PDM.
This has resulted in a historic 75-year high inflation rate of 31.5% and an increase in national debt of Rs 14.3 trillion, he said.
The Pakistani rupee dropped 8.29% (or Rs24.07) to a new all-time low of Rs290.18 versus the US dollar in the interbank market at around midday on Thursday before the former prime minister’s tweet.
After the government dramatically increased electricity and fuel prices, together with the negative effects of currency devaluation and a halt to imports, inflation in Pakistan soared to the highest level of 31.5% in 50 years, making it the 17th most expensive country in the world.
Figures made public by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Wednesday indicated that the nation was rapidly moving towards hyperinflation, with at least four categories of consumer goods already experiencing an annual price increase of approximately 50%.
A simple reading of the inflation bulletin highlighted how unpleasant life had become for the average Pakistani, as virtually any consumer commodity had not seen a recent increase in price.
