Claim: Imran Khan has admitted that the current government has managed to save the economy from collapsing.
Fact: In his full statement, Khan says the current government has stifled economic growth to claim reduced inflation. According to senior PTI leader Salman Akram Raja, Khan said that there is no investment or jobs because there is no law or political stability.
On 26 December 2024, Geo News published an article on their website, with the following headline:
“حکومت نے دیوالیہ ہوتی معیشت کو سنبھال لیا، عمران خان کا اعتراف”
[Translation: The government stabilised a bankrupt economy, Imran Khan admits]
The headline implies that Khan has reversed his opinions on the country’s economic situation and now believes the PML-N current government is handling it well.
The body of the article further states, “بانی چیئرمین پی ٹی آئی کا کہنا تھا معیشت مستحکم ہونے سے دیوالیہ ہونے سے بچ گئی ہے لیکن ترقی نہیں ہوئی۔” [Translation: The founding chairman of PTI said that the economy has been saved from bankruptcy due to its stability, but there has been no development.]
It also mentions that a delegation of senior PTI leaders, including but not limited to Ali Amin Gandapur, Asad Qaiser, Umar Ayub, Sahibzada Hamid Raza, and Raja Nasir Abbas, visited Khan in jail.
The article was also shared on X, with the post being viewed more than 170,000 views and on Facebook, which received more than 10,100 interactions.
Fact or Fiction?
Lawyer and PTI politician Salman Akram Raja, posted on X on 26 December 2024, the same day as the article published by Geo News. In his post, he clearly states, “In today’s meeting with the negotiations team, Imran Khan Sahib was very clear about the economy. The Form 47 regime has stifled growth in order to claim reduced inflation. This is no stabilisation. There is no investment or jobs because there is no law or political stability.”
On 27 December 2024, due to misconstrued reporting of Khan’s statements, the social media team published a statement directly from Imran Khan clarifying what he said in his conversation with journalists on 26 December. The excerpt about the economy is reproduced below:
“Had there been rule of law in the country, we would have attracted investments, and the economy would have stabilized. But no attention was paid to this. Investors are withdrawing their capital, and factories are shutting down.”
Is the economy actually growing?
Business journalist and the former editor of Profit Magazine Khurram Hussain, writes in an article published on 12 December 2024, “There appears to be growing impatience within the government with the ongoing economic adjustment, and an itch to somehow kick-start growth.”
In this piece, he explains that Pakistan has experienced brief growth spurts using liquidity injections – both foreign and domestic, from 2002 to 2007, from 9/11 based inflows, from 2014 to 2017, with a loan from Saudi Arabia, and Eurobond floatation, and from 2020 till 2021, when massive bailouts was given amid the pandemic. It further states that in all three cases, the government held a low exchange rate artificially, reduced interest rates, and increased government spending on “special initiatives” and poorly thought investment activities.
“The result in each case was a growth spurt that began almost immediately, as the idle capacity that was lying unutilised during the preceding period of economic adjustment suddenly kicked into motion. In all three cases, growth started within months,” the article says. “In all of them, massive liquidity injections were used to kick-start growth… There was no exception. Every growth spurt ended the same way,” it further adds.
Virality
On Facebook we found the claim shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Imran Khan’s statement about Pakistan’s economy was misconstrued by Geo News
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Background image in cover photo: NPR
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