India orchestrated Pakistan Stock Exchange attack, PM Imran tells NA

ISLAMABAD: Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday Pakistan has no qualms that Monday’s terrorist attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was orchestrated in India.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said the attack was similar to terrorism incidents taking place in Mumbai. “We have no doubt that this [attack] was carried out by India.”

He hailed a police sub-inspector and three security guards who lost their lives while thwarting the attack as “heroes”.

“They rendered sacrifices and foiled a major incident planned by India to destabilise us,” PM Khan said, adding the security forces were fully prepared to deal with any terrorism incident.

Khan termed the security forces foiling the attack “a huge win.”

The prime minister thanked his party MNAs and ruling coalition partners over the passage of the budget 2020-21.

“If you had watched TV the night before the passage of the budget you would have thought it was our last day,” he said, lauding women MNAs’ role in the approval of the budget.

He said it was a difficult budget as the government had to revise its revenue target to Rs3,900 billion. “We had to collect Rs5,000 billion revenue but face a shortfall of Rs1 trillion shortfall,” he said.

The prime minister said countries cannot gauge the overall impact of Covid-19 lockdown. He maintained his government didn’t impose a complete lockdown despite a huge pressure on it to do so to prevent spread of the virus.

He claimed the government was on its way to complete the revenue target set in the previous budget but the coronavirus came, taking a heavy toll on economies and resulting in a shortfall of one trillion rupees.

Prime Minister Khan said the government relaxed lockdown restrictions to make lives easier for the poor, lauding his special assistant on social protection Dr Sania Nishar over distribution of Ehsaas emergency cash handouts among the people.

In his speech, he touched upon the issues faced by the power sector, the Pakistan International Airlines, the Pakistan Railways, the Pakistan Steel Mills as well as reforms being carried out to fix ailing institutions.

He also slammed the previous governments, saying unfortunately corrupt leadership played havoc with the country.