Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has announced to organize a power show at Islamabad’s Parade Ground next Saturday (2 July 2022) to protest against the “imported government.” Imran Khan, while addressing a news conference in Bani Gala today, asked people to stage protests in major cities across the country.
Imran Khan criticized the incumbent government, saying they have pushed Pakistan to the brink of disaster in the name of amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law. “They were not prepared to improve the national economy nor did they have any plan to control inflation.” he said.
Imran Khan also said that PTI has approached the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan to challenge the amendments to the NAB law. “We respect the judiciary and it will not let anyone do injustice to the Pakistanis.” he said. “If the amended NAB law is accepted, Pakistan will no more require an enemy.”
He added that current government is only focused on getting NRO-II just like they had been awarded NRO-I by the military ruler Pervaiz Musharraf. Imran Khan said that changes to the NAB law will allow all the criminals to roam freely without getting apprehended for their crimes.
Talking about the super tax imposed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the ex-premier said that it will negatively impact everyone as it will put more burden on the masses and the production costs will also increase. The ex-premier added that rates of electricity, oil and gas have also been increased and that will put more burden on industries.
“Due to this, the industries have started terminating their employees,” he said, adding that several firms are going to be shut down as well. He mentioned that corporate tax will be increased to 39 percent due to the super tax, while the corporate tax in India and Bangladesh is around 25 percent.
Imran Khan said that farmers will also bear the brunt of the expensive diesel prices along with the salaried class, who are already worried by the rising inflation in the country. He criticized the current rulers for withdrawing the tax exemption on the low-salaried persons who are receiving over Rs. 50,000 monthly income.
He said that PTI Government would have set a tax collection target of Rs. 8,000 billion and achieved it. “We wanted to increase the tax net without imposing taxes on the nationals.” he said. “We planned to bring people into the tax net and PTI Government had used technology for tax collection.”
The former Prime Minister said that Pakistan had recorded the highest exports during PTI’s tenure due to effective policies and providing financial relief to the industry. He also mentioned that textile industry that were facing a shortage of employees during PTI’s government are now closing and unemployment is on the rise.
Imran Khan called on the people to across major cities to hold peaceful protests against the current government and announced a power show (gathering) at the Parade Ground in Islamabad on next Saturday.
Read more: Govt Increases Tax Rates For Salaried Class – Explained.
