Imran says Pakistan can’t make progress unless exports increase 

Former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan has said, “It had never been thought of improving wealth by increasing exports, if exports do not increase, how the country will grow?

He expressed these views while addressing a seminar on the economic situation of Pakistan organised by the PTI in Islamabad on Tuesday. He maintained that overseas Pakistanis are our real assets and they can rescue us from the grip of foreign debts.

Imran said that the then opposition was not interested in coming to power to serve the country but they were afraid of accountability and wanted NRO from him (Imran).

He said that from the very first day, they tried to derail the PTI government and even they did not let him make a speech in the National Assembly during the first session of the NA.

He observed that every day there was pressure to fix the economy whereas the opposition was bent on overthrowing our government from day one as they were afraid, “I would hold them accountable and they were blackmailing that NRO should be given to them”.

Imran recalled that Maulana Fazlur Rahman used to bring his Dharna, “We even offered food to the Maulana but we didn’t file any cases against him, then Bilawal Bhutto came with shaking legs”.

He maintained, “We had never even thought of improving our wealth by increasing exports.”

“Someone kept talking about making Pakistan an Asian Tiger. If exports do not increase, how will the country grow?”

 He said that unfortunately, Pakistan had never made any effort to improve its wealth by increasing exports.

Since the 1990s, two families have been taking turns and the situation has reached such a point that even Bangladesh has overtaken us.

When two parties came to power, their wealth increased, the country’s debts increased.

The former prime minister recalled that the then opposition parties including Shahbaz Sharif kept demanding the PTI government to lock down the country during the Corona.

“But for us daily wage earners were very important and they never thought about the common man and daily wage earners how they could survive when the country was locked down.

Even today, they are still busy in eliminating their corruption cases, he added.’

He said, “Pakistan faces major challenges our government will make decisions that no one has made such efforts before.”

Because of corruption cases of the then opposition, the PTI government could not give full attention to the economy, adding that he always took exporters with him on his foreign tours so that they could avail themselves the export opportunities, Imran recalled.

He said that secondly, the overseas Pakistanis could play a very important role in improving the country’s economy.

He vowed that if the PTI came to power in the future, they would give complete attention to the economy.