LAHORE: The opposition has asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to stop blaming previous governments for his failures and concentrate on his performance.

“Passing the buck to the Bhuttos and the Sharifs for his failures in more than three years in government, Imran Khan should know that this narrative has been outdated,” PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said in a series of tweets on Saturday.

She said the PTI government had added to the country’s debts to the tune of 70 per cent amounting to Rs20.7 trillion and in the face of it he (Khan) is blaming others.

“In a weekly report, inflation shot up to 19.5pc. Is the PTI government not responsible for record loans, unbridled inflation and price hike, unemployment and crises in over three years? When will the incumbent government accept its responsibilities and the PTI knows that it is in power,” she asked.

PPP, PML-N berate PTI govt for its poor performance

The PPP Senator further said the premier had been under an illusion that except him all those in politics wanted to do corruption. “Contrary to this, the majority of Pakistan believes that corruption has increased in the regime of Imran Khan. The people will ask in the coming polls about the PTI government’s performance and by indulging only in blame games it cannot get away with its responsibilities,” she said.

In an interview to foreign media on Friday, PM Khan had said the Bhutto and Sharif families were responsible for the country’s present situation. “Pakistan was rich in resources but the Bhutto and Sharif families had used the resources unfairly. My government wants Pakistan to become a prosperous country and it is fighting against the two families, which are super rich,” he said.

PML-N’s information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb also asked Imran Khan to stop trumpeting the same false accusations because his repetition would not make these cooked-up charges true.

“Transparency International has already awarded the international certificate of corruption to this government and declared this Imran-led government a thief. Pakistan has dropped from 111th to 124th place because of the rampant corruption by Imran and his cronies,” she said in a statement.

The former information minister said Mr Khan had enslaved the nation to the ‘corrupt mafia cartels’. She said the premier helped these ‘mafias’ rob billions in sugar, flour and medicine scandals and then blamed others for it. “Khan aided them to steal billions on Ring Road, Covid Funds, Tosha Khana, and other mega corruption scandals and still has the audacity to point fingers at others,” she said.

Ms Aurangzeb said Mr Khan had been levelling these false allegations for the past 22 years and had been in government for over three years and yet he could not prove any of these accusations. “Had he spent this time and resources to solve the national issues, he might have gotten something done,” she lamented.

She said the country was going deeper into economic recession, gas shortages, rising unemployment while Imran has nothing to offer but the same old, stale, baseless allegations that have already been questioned in courts.

PPP secretary general Nayyar Bokhari said PM Khan and his cabinet members, whose kitchen was being run on official expense, had no idea that the country’s economy had reached the brink of disaster.

“Handing over the keys of the country’s economy to the IMF is a crime and tantamount to enmity with the public,” Mr Bokhari said and added the PPP would continue holding protests against the government’s steps that caused price hike, making the lives of the people miserable.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2021