Situation would not improve ‘until and unless all the parties sit at a table and talk’: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

ISLAMABAD, May 17 (SABAH): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday said dissolving assemblies is “not the solution” to the prevailing economic crisis, and urged all political parties to sit together with the government and derive a solution to it.

“Dissolving the assemblies is not the solution,” Abbasi told reporters outside the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) offices in Islamabad when asked about the economic crisis. “The government is working hard to get the situation under control.”

The senior PML-N leader said the situation would not improve “until and unless all the parties sit at a table and talk”.

His remarks come in the backdrop of a sliding rupee value, and a stock market that has experienced a slump owing to government’s decision to maintain the fuel subsidy which was instituted by its predecessor. At the same time, PTI chairman Imran Khan has consistently maintained that fresh elections are the sole solution to the prevailing crisis.

“This destruction [of the economy] started four years ago when the PTI government came to power,” he claimed. “Today, Imran Khan is the sole person responsible for the economic turmoil in Pakistan. You cannot expect a government to immediately fix things that he spoiled.”

Referring to PTI supporters, Abbasi said that “true patriots” would think about the well-being of the country and “actively play a part in taking decisions that are for the betterment of the economy”.

The decisions, the PML-N leader continued, also need the support of institutions and the people because Pakistan was everyone’s responsibility. “Our country has always had unconstitutional intervention in politics. That intervention also plays a role in getting us where we are today,” he added.

Abbasi’s talk followed a hearing on a multi-billion-rupee case against him related to the award of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract. With regard to the anti-graft body, Abbasi demanded that NAB should be “immediately dissolved” as “Pakistan will not be able to function as long as the bureau exists”.