Will have to take “unprecedented decisions” to steer the country out of the crises: Imran Khan

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that he will have to take “unprecedented decisions” to steer the country out of the crises if his party comes into power again.

“Now, we have to find out-of-the-box solutions to govern the country like no one ever had. We have to take those steps which we never took before,” the ousted premier said while addressing a seminar on the economy in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Imran admitted that his administration was not prepared to run the country when it came into power in 2018, saying; “I spoke to [former finance minister] Shaukat Tarin and discussed that we will have to come prepared this time”.

The PTI chief said his party’s foremost priority will be to protect the vulnerable from inflation and the aftermath of devastating floods.

He said overseas Pakistanis will play an important role in stabilising the country’s economy. “We are devising strategy as to how we can facilitate overseas Pakistanis to invest in the country.”

Imran said during his last stint in power he could not solve many problems due to “political instability as opposition from the day one wanted to topple my government”.

He said he started two major projects — Ravi City and Bundal Island — both of which he said had the potential to attract foreign investment worth billions of dollars.

But unfortunately, the Sindh government cancelled the NOC for Bundal Island project and “builder mafia” got a stay order which halted the work on Ravi City project for 11 months.

Hitting out at the incumbent rulers, Imran said they did not take any step to improve the lives of the masses as their only objective is to get “relief in corruption cases”.

“They mocked me when I started the billion tree tsunami project.. they [political rivals] did not make any long-term plans to protect the country from climate change..”