LAHORE, Oct 31: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan says Pakistan has gone bankrupt and the PML-N government is waiting for some miracle to get out of this quagmire.

Neither the US government gave any “gift” in terms of any concession nor has Saudia Arabia given any “aid” to the Pakistan government, he observed.

Imran was speaking to businessmen and media persons at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry as well as party office on Thursday.

“The way US President Barack Obama has treated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is humiliating. Mr Obama did not even agree to stop drone attacks, for whose war against terrorism, Pakistan had got killed its own 50,000 people. The latest drone attack on Thursday proved how the US was treating Pakistan’s new government.”

Pakistan, he said, was going slow on dialogue with the Taliban. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government might start dialogue with the Taliban independently, he added.

“If any drone attack will be launched during the dialogue, the KP Assembly will adopt a resolution and then block Nato supply,” he pledged. He said the PTI’s core committee would also discuss drone attacks along with other issues on coming Saturday.

Imran said the PTI would organise massive protest demonstration if its demand of detailed audit of ballot-papers along with thumb impressions in four constituencies was not met.

He said the areas of PTI strength were being made part of other UCs to ensure victory of the PML-N. He also asserted that the PTI would not let the government hold local elections on the pattern of the May 11 general election.

He said Pakistan could become viable only by controlling corruption and tax evasion. He said plugging even half of power theft and tax evasion could make Pakistan capable of not looking towards the IMF for loan. He also called for abolishing schemes that make black money white.He said Pakistan was collecting only Rs2 trillion taxes and giving Rs1.3 trillion in loan installments and the remaining Rs700 billion to the army. He said the finance ministry needed to be abolished because it was not collecting taxes but “jagga tax” (extortion). “The present government is trying to cure cancer with Disprin,” he said.

The PTI chief said the government, in an unprecedented move, had increased tax on top professionals’ income by 50 per cent. This move would trigger the flight of skilled and professionals from the country, he said.

He said privatisation was not an answer to making public institutions viable. Instead, he said, the public institutions should be depoliticised by removing political appointees and top professionals be brought in to run the defaulting public institutions.

He said those enjoying luxurious lifestyles but not paying taxes needed to be brought in the tax net. Stating that a politician needed millions of rupees to contest elections, he lamented that almost 70 per cent of them did not pay their taxes.

He also said the government should initiate proceedings against former president Asif Ali Zardari with regard to Rs6 billion in the Swiss banks and added that the international law allowed proceedings even if the case had become time-barred.

Responding to the latest 19-page tax form, Imran agreed with businessmen that the form should be filled by politicians and bureaucrats first. He stressed that the government should not push people including traders and businessmen against the wall.

He said many people including women, children, and a PTI provincial minister were killed in three bomb blasts in the KP. He said almost 70 per cent of the KP industry was lying shut. “When even cricket teams are not coming to Pakistan, how can (more coward) investors come,” he wondered.

The PTI chief evaded FPCCI chairman Azhar Saeed Butt’s question with regard to party’s support if it would take hard decisions of going on strike and eventually wheel-jam strike. He again did not respond to the question when another businessman repeated it.

PTI General-Secretary Jahangir Tareen said the party had prepared detailed policy papers and given solutions to various issues. He said both policy papers were available on PTI’s website.