Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has come under scrutiny for his helicopter rides. This report comes at a time when the nation is gripped by a major economic crisis, with the rupee plummeting, inflation soaring.
According to a report in The Nation, Imran Khan’s helicopter rides cost the national kitty ₹1 billion. The expense details were presented in the Pakistani Senate.
As per the report, the VVIP helicopter rides were carried out on the instructions of the Prime Minister’s Office from 2019 to 2021.
The federal government in its written response informed the Senate that according to the details provided by the Cabinet Division, an amount of ₹946.3 million was spent on VVIP helicopter missions by 6 Aviation Squadron under instructions of the PM’s Office from 2019 to 2021 when Imran Khan was the prime minister of the country.
Pakistan’s economy in ‘collapse’
Pakistan is locked in an endless cycle of servicing external debt. The IMF delegation will arrive in the country today to take stock of the situation. The world’s fifth-biggest population has less than $3.7 billion in the state bank — enough to cover just three weeks of imports.
It is no longer issuing letters of credit, except for essential food and medicines, causing a backlog of thousands of shipping containers at Karachi port stuffed with stock the country can no longer afford.
Last week the whole country was plunged into a day-long blackout because of a fault in the national grid that followed a cost-cutting measure.
The tumbling economy mirrors the country’s political chaos, with former prime minister Imran Khan heaping pressure on the ruling coalition in his bid for early elections.
-With agency inputs
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