LONDON, Oct 24: Tehrik-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan has warned that Pakistan is heading for “disaster” and lacks any plan to get through its current economic crisis.

Mr Khan said there was “no victory” in sight for US-led forces fighting in Afghanistan and threw his weight behind Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the US presidential election.“I go as far as to say that where Pakistan stands today, we cannot go on as we have been going on,” Khan told the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think-tank in London on Thursday.

“Unless we change, we are heading towards a disaster. The only way we can change is if we have an independent judiciary checking the abuse of power,” he said. “We have muddled through and always somehow we felt that Pakistan was going to get out of the crises it faced. This time the reason it’s different is that never have we had such an economic crisis.”

Mr Khan said there was “no strategy” for tackling the problems, adding: “No-one knows how we are going to get out of this.” Pakistan has held discussions with the International Monetary Fund and needs up to 4.5 billion dollars (3.5 billion euros) in the next month to deal with a balance of payments crisis.

He warned the United States, which has faced controversy over its aerial attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas in pursuit of suspected militants linked to insurgency in Afghanistan, was failing to win hearts and minds in his country.

“Unless there’s a change of strategy, in my opinion there’s no victory in sight for the US,” he said, calling for dialogue with militants.

Mr Khan predicted more suicide bombings in Pakistan following a devastating attack at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad last month.—AFP