'No NRO for the corrupt': PM Imran Khan assures Pakistanis of bright future after accountability drive

LAHORE - Prime Minister Imran Khan is taking the nation into confidence about his recent visit to Saudi Arabia and other issues related to the country's deteriorating economy in a live address.

Starting his speech with a 'good news' following his visit to Saudi Arabia, Khan said: "We were trying for many days to get rid of this burden placed on us of the debt. We had to pay back our debts otherwise we would have been faced with default."

"We got an amazing package from Saudi Arabia which has taken off the burden."

Khan said we had limited resources and were at the brink of becoming defaulters. We had two options; either go to IMF or seek help from friendly countries.

"If we had gone to IMF directly, we’d have had to borrow more money and that would have meant stricter conditions which would crush our poor strata of society. But now we are in a better position."

The premier said PTI government’s highest priority has been to protect the salaried class from economic pressures as much as we can.

"We are in talks with two more friendly nations and hopeful of more good news."

" In 1971, Pakistan was in debt of only Rs 30 billion, that amounted to Rs 6000 billion up to 2008 that hiked to Rs 30,000 billion by two parties-- PMLN and PPP."

The two parties that have been ruling Pakistan have not even spared welfare fund of workers. People in Steel Mills have been robbed of their welfare funds even.

Apart from all this, I want to ask the two parties who have been ruling Pakistan for past 10 years that do they have any shame when they unite against us and term us as failures?

Both the parties who have been ruling Pakistan have accumulated Pakistan’s debts from Rs 6,000 billion to Rs 30,000 billion. In addition to that, the previous government has left Rs 1200 billion as circular debt.

No NRO for the corrupt

"Pakistan is facing the worst volume of Money Laundering, they think that might pressurize us as they did in the Musharaf era, I would never do this as this would burden the public even more "

"They are trying to blackmail us. But if these parties want to protest, they’re more than welcome. We will give them a container. We will also give them dinner every day but what we will never give them is an NRO."

The corrupt think they will get another NRO just like they got from Musharraf. Make no mistake, there will be no NRO. "Our govt is adamant to take on corruption," Khan reiterated.

"Corruption is cancer for this society, we must eradicate corruption no matter how painful and hard it is for us, we are also encouraging investors to start the business in Pakistan "

PIA is under debt, Steel Mills is non-functional, under Rs 300 billion debt. These are the doings of these two parties. Now, they are all united in the name of “democracy is endangered” because we are investigating their corruption.

"My people! do not get panicked, nations have to pay the price of the wrongdoings of their leaders, we are curbing money laundering by strengthening our institutions. "

"The time is not far when Pakistan would be offering loans to the other countries instead of taking, stay strong, May Allah help us all. "

PM Imran said he had talked to Saudi authorities to reduce the visa fee for our workers that has been accepted by them. "I urge all overseas to send remittance through banking channel "

On Tuesday, Pakistan announced Saudi Arabia had agreed to give Pakistan $3 billion in foreign currency support for a year and a further loan worth up to $3 billion in deferred payments for oil imports to help stave off a current account crisis.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said this week Pakistan was seeking help from "friendly nations", which is usually a reference to close allies Saudi Arabia and China, to go with an IMF programme.

'Pakistan to act as mediator in Yemen war'

Khan said that he will try to get Muslim countries together, besides acting as a "mediator" in the resolution of conflicts between Muslim countries.

"We are trying our best to act as a mediator to resolve the Yemen crisis," he said.