Lahore: Predicting that general elections might take place in country in April, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said that his party has "No relationship with new military leadership yet". Responding to question during an interview with BBC Urdu about PTI's relationship with new Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir and whether party had established contact with military leadership via President Arif Alvi.

"Look, we don't have any relationship with (new military leadership) at moment," he replied, who has been critical of former Army Chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa for his alleged role in overthrowing PTI government. "Someone needs to ask them why they overthrew our government via conspiracy despite giving best performance in 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.

PTI Chief said that he and former Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen had told Gen (retd) Bajwa that he had created instability to make conspiracy successful, adding that he had predicted new government will not be able to manage economy and he has been proved right. "Market soon lost confidence in them. They (government) were busy with their theft and taking NRO-2. Chaos soon began to rise in 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 government, not even enemies of Pakistan would have done.

To a question about dissolution of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab assemblies, Imran said that no one in Pakistan dissolves their own government. "Current government came into power via 'auction' not after elections," he added. He claimed that Shehbaz government came into power via horse-trading.

 "They bought loyalties by paying Rs 200 to Rs 250 million to people. General Bajwa also helped them so they can be imposed upon us," he added. Imran alleged that former Army Chief helped current rulers' clear corruption cases worth Rs 1,100 billion. "They have sunk economy. Pakistan has never faced such financial issues it is facing today," he added. Imran predicted that current government will be forced to hold elections in April. "Spending two more months seems difficult at moment. My prediction is, whatever happens, this government will be forced to hold elections in April."

He said that only $ 4 billion foreign reserves were left and many containers were held up at Karachi port. "Inflation was on rise and factories were shutting down which is increasing unemployment," he added.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 19 2023

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