Former Pakistan PM says Imran Khan’s breach of IMF deal was act of ‘suicide bombing’ against country
Former Pakistan prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has accused Imran Khan of breaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal during his time in office, and compared his actions “suicide bombings”.
Pakistan is making a last-ditch effort to persuade the IMF to release more funds from a $6bn (£4.6bn) rescue package agreed in 2019 to help the South Asian nation’s battered economy. Islamabad has already asked the IMF to increase the size and duration of its programme, with foreign reserves falling as low as $10.3bn (£8.35bn) in May.
Mr Abbasi tore into the 22nd president and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Monday for failing to “fix the country’s problems” and pushing the country towards a financial crisis. Mr Abbasi is a member of the ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
“PTI carried out suicide bombings throughout the country. The way he took decisions in the past month and the way he broke the IMF deal, with the savagery with which they did so, were acts of suicide attacks against the country,” the PML-N said in a tweet with a video of Mr Abbasi.
He made the remarks after a PTI lawmaker threatened to carry out a suicide attack if party chairman Imran Khan is harmed.
“If a single hair on Imran Khan’s head is harmed, then those running the country, be warned: Neither you nor your children will remain. I will be the first to carry out a suicide attack on you, I will not let you go. In the same way, thousands of workers are ready,” Attaullah said, The Dawn reported.
Mr Abbasi said the new government would have to make difficult decisions for Pakistan without being afraid to fix the issues ailing the country.
“We hope the people of this nation would see that this person [Imran Khan] who has ruined the country for four years... now to save his life and his corruption, the members of his party are talking about suicide attacks,” he said.
“Had he been able to fix the country’s issues during his tenure, then today they wouldn’t have to talk about suicide attacks.”
He had earlier accused Mr Khan of destroying the energy sector of Pakistan while lamenting about the low efficiency of some power plants in the country.
“After 30 June, there will be no load-shedding of more than two hours. Today, we need to produce 25,000 megawatts [MW] of electricity but we’re only producing 21,000MW,” he said.
Mr Khan was ousted from the prime minister’s post in April through a no-confidence vote, while the cricketer-turned-politician alleged that there was a foreign conspiracy plotted in the United States to overthrow his government with the help of the opposition parties.
The US has denied allegations of any involvement in Pakistan’s internal politics.
