MUNICH
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that Pakistan is facing the worst economic crisis in its history. In an interview with American channel CNBC on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the Pakistani Foreign Minister said that the Ukrainian war and flood destroyed the country’s economy.
“Pakistan can solve its problems once again by becoming an emerging economy. It is going through a period where unconstitutional measures will no longer take place,” he maintained. The PPP chairman said that they had discussed the climate change in Pakistan, country’s economy and the situation in Afghanistan.
About Defense Minister Khawaja Asif’s statement, Bilawal Bhutto said that the defense minister was speaking in a political context. “Khawaja Asif was not talking about technical but difficult economic times.”
He said that they were facing the worst economic crisis. “A large part of the country is submerged in the recent flood water. The flood disaster is due to the climate change. The flood has changed the direction of Pakistan’s economy. Pakistan is still facing difficulties and could not get out. We are negotiating with the IMF only to get out of this economic crisis,” he added.
He was of the view that the steps taken by the opposition had happened for the first time in history. Bilawal also hinted that Imran Khan may not have a future in politics if he refuses to follow “the democratic path”.
Bilawal went on to note that he deemed two events in the past year as significant for Pakistan’s future: Imran’s ouster and former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa’s pledge of neutrality.
“You might not like the results of it [the vote of no confidence] if you are from his party,” he said, “but in the course of Pakistan’s history, that is a fundamental achievement that a military man has not come in and pulled out the prime minister or a court has not ordered for them to go.
The democratic process has been followed.”
The vote of no confidence that took the PTI chief out of office, Bilwal described it as an “institutional and democratic milestone.”
Secondly, he said that the fact that “the former chief of army staff stood up and gave a speech in his uniform where he accepted that in the past the military used to intervene in politics and that that is not good, neither for the institution and nor for the country and they would like to transition away from that” was a noteworthy development.
He maintained that this “public” admission by the military that it wished to move from a “controversial role to a constitutional role” should be encouraged by all those in the country who support democracy.
When asked specifically if he believed Imran still had a future in Pakistan’s politics, Bilawal said that while he “never says never in politics” but “encouraged” his political rival nonetheless to “pursue the democratic path”.
“This has been my message to Mr Khan ever since he was prime minister or when he was leaving office and up until this day,” he said adding that Imran would “most certainly have a future in politics if he strives to pursue the democratic path”.
Urging the former premier to “change his protest from ‘come intervene in politics’ to ‘everybody committing to play a constitutional role in politics’”, Bilawal warned that Imran would be lost to history like many before him.
“Undemocratic forces have had their time in Pakistan’s political history,” he added, “but it has never been long-lived.” “Former Prime Minister Imran Khan can return to the Parliament by adopting a democratic style. However, he is not adopting a democratic style which is not beneficial for him,” he maintained.
