PTI Chairman Imran Khan said his party is developing a strategy of saving the country from default if he comes to power by negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a “viable way of being able to pay our debts”, it emerged on Thursday.
In an interview with the Financial Times published today, the former premier said: “We’re sitting with our economists [on] how to come up with a plan with which we can sit with the IMF and give them a viable way of being able to pay our debts.
“But at the same time, our economy should not be choked so that our ability to pay debt goes down.”
His remarks come as the country is in talks with the IMF to secure a final tranche of $1.1 billion since February, which is part of a $6.5bn bailout package.
In his interview, Imran said, “Whatever we do, when we look ahead, the debt is growing, our economy is slowly shrinking. […] From my party’s point of view, we’ve started thinking that we’re stuck.”
Criticising the government for not being able to take the country out of the current economic crisis, he said it “needed to break out of borrowing cycles that have held back developing economies”.