ISLAMABAD: While assuring people that the call for a march towards Islamabad will be given after May 20, PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday blasted the elite class of the country saying it could not imagine to survive without the help of the United States.

Speaking to people through a video link, the former prime minister said that he had never been anti-US or anti-Europe, but added that Americans had the habit of giving orders and wanted these orders to be implemented.

“Although the elite class of the country thinks that it cannot survive without the help of the US, the Pakistani nation is strong and it knows how to stand against such forces. However, unfortunately, there are some people at the top who have property in the posh area of London. Maryam Nawaz has four palaces in affluent area of Mayfair in London. She cannot declare/clarify how she got the money to buy these flats,” Mr Khan said.

Giving the example of Russia, the PTI leader said the property of the richest people of Russia was being confiscated in the US and Europe because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the elite class of Pakistan had fears they might face a similar situation as it did not have the courage to take a stand against the US.

Mr Khan said that in the past, a president (Pervez Musharraf) changed the country’s foreign policy on just a phone call from the US.

“Although I had good relations with former US president Donald Trump, I wanted to make the foreign policy for Pakistanis and that is why I decided to purchase gas and wheat at 30 per cent less than the international market rate from Russia,” he said.

“However, some of my party members started opposing my decision of buying wheat and gas from Russia after a threat given by the US on it. I ask the people of the country to stage protests, write letters to public representatives and share posts on social media as we want to run a campaign against what has happened. After May 20, I will give a call to you people for the march towards Islamabad,” Mr Khan said.

The former prime minister also urged Pakistanis living abroad to contribute to the campaign as it was a defining moment in the country’s history and the nation would soon get the independence.

He also claimed that despite Covid-19, the PTI government improved economy and pumped money into the agriculture sector due to which the financial position of farmers had improved and tax collection had reached a record level.

Meanwhile, PTI’s Central Secretary General Asad Umar accused the PML-N-led coalition government of having failed to control economy which had resulted in price hike in the country.

“The inflation has increased in April and because of it prices of tomato, onion, vegetables, fruits, edible oil, flour, meat, pulses, etc have all gone up,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2022