LAHORE: The PML-N on Saturday submitted a resolution to the Punjab Assembly demanding resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan for his “complete failure to handle economic crisis”.

In the resolution, the PML-N said the stock market had crashed, currency devalued as a US dollar had crossed Rs150 mark, foreign reserves plummeted and the growth rate dipped down to 2.7 per cent. “Prime Minister Imran Khan is not competent enough to steer the country out of economic crisis, rather he is responsible for unprecedented inflation and price hike. Therefore, he should immediately resign from his post,” it said.

PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz also chided the government for making the life of the common man miserable and putting reverse gear to the country’s economy because of its incompetence.

“Records are tumbling like never before but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. Last week was the worst for stock market in 17 years. Add the battering in the currency market where rupee lost 10 rupees & you would know what an economic meltdown,” Maryam Nawaz said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, addressing the party’s former chairmen and councillors of his constituency here on Saturday, National Assembly ex-speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said Imran Khan should tell the people under what deal his government devalued the currency. “The government also increased the gas tariff multi-fold. In the first go the PTI government increased gas tariff by 145 per cent and now 47 per cent more. One wonders at the wisdom of PM Khan when he says that in every third house gas is discovered through digging. Where is that gas? There is something seriously wrong with him,” Mr Sadiq said.

Using cricket terminology, he said, the PTI’s opening batsman Asad Umar had been bowled out in the first over and he would get another job but the masses’ miseries would continue to increase.

To a question about the PML-N’s protest plan, Sadiq said the party would decide it in its meeting on Monday. He said there had been no grouping in the party. He said that he held no meeting with former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2019