BAHAWALNAGAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Vice President Maryam Nawaz has said that the country was paying the price for the violations of the IMF deal committed when Imran Khan was at the helm in the centre.

Speaking at a public meeting in Chishtian in support of a PML-N candidate for the now-postponed PP-241 by-election on Thursday, Maryam said the former prime minister was responsible for the economic situation the country was currently facing.

She claimed that the PTI chief had been “planted by enemies of Pakistan to destabilise the country”.

She said because of the violation of the IMF deal, the current government was left with no option but to increased the prices of petrol and diesel.

Ms Sharif said at a time when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was working day and night to lift the country out of this difficult situation, Imran Khan was busy creating roadblocks through his former ministers, especially Shaukat Tarin, who she said tried to sabotage the current government’s accord with the IMF.

Questioning Mr Khan’s demand that the new army chief should be selected on merit, she asked him whether he himself “was brought into power on merit”.

The PML-N leader said that Imran Khan believed in getting his way by abusing institutions, adding that he was “neither a politician, nor was his party a political outfit.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2022