Moral decay precedes economic downfall of a nation, says PM

Ag Agencies

Imran says granting NRO to opposition would be easy but disastrous for the country; India backing Daesh in bid to stir sectarianism and chaos in the country

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said a country’s economic downfall comes after it loses its moral centre and described granting concessions — an “NRO” — to the opposition as something that would ease his life, but would have disastrous consequences for the nation.

“Any NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) will make my life far easier, but it will be disastrous for the country,” Khan said during an hour-long interaction with an audience comprising journalists, social activists, YouTubers and educationists with substantial followings on social media.

“During the last 10 years, they (the opposition) had given NROs to each other and consequently the country’s debt swelled fourfold. Then no one was questioning anyone. There was the same NAB (National Accountability Bureau) which was disturbing no one at that time,” the Prime Minister said.

Khan recalled “both the NROs” were given by former president Pervez Musharraf, which he said had “damaged the country to a great extent”.

He lamented that because they (previous regimes) overburdened the country with debt, half of the revenue that his government collects goes to repaying debt, leaving the government short of resources to spend on public welfare.

The Prime Minister said any such exemption undermined the nation’s moral standards, which the opposition leaders had “unfortunately” done, with even the media showing leniency towards their “corruption of multimillion rupees, ignoring its real role of a watchdog”.

He said no one in any civilised country could ever think of its prime minister or foreign minister doing a job in a Dubai firm “just to launder the money abroad”, referring to his predecessor Nawaz Sharif and former foreign minister Khawaja Asif.

The Prime Minister said “moral downfall precedes the economic downfall of any nation”. Some third world nations with plenty of natural resources were poor just because their leaders were involved in corruption, he said.

He added that it “takes long and requires tough decisions” to challenge the status quo, and exemplified China, which jailed “over 400 ministerial-level people for their corruption” and thus elevated the nation out of poverty.

Khan viewed the least corrupt governments as the most prosperous. He said in order to change the society and mindset, the nation would have to consider corruption as an evil, otherwise it could not be eliminated just through law enforcement. Calling it a “classic case”, the Prime Minister referred to a question by a news anchor as to why Khawaja Asif was arrested for corruption of “just” Rs 220 million. “It reflects the downing of a nation’s morality,” he added.

Referring to the attack that killed Hazara miners, the Prime Minister said: "India is backing ISIS in the region to spread chaos in Pakistan by fanning sectarianism". He added that Pakistan's security agencies successfully preempted Indian plots to fan sectarianism. Khan said it is unfortunate that terrorists targeted Hazara workers in thinly populated area.