JHELUM — Ousted prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday advised PrimeMinister Shehbaz Sharif to talk to the IMF head and seek concessions forPakistan as the country has been devastated by super floods.

Addressing a public rally in Jhelum, Khan slammed the Shehbaz governmentfor claiming that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was trying to sabotagethe IMF loan programme for Pakistan. He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa financeminister had been seeking time for a meeting with Shehbaz for the last twomonths, but he was not given time for the meeting. He said that KhyberPakhtunkwha was not given its share of the IMF loan and finally the financeminister had to write a letter to the federal finance minister.

Khan said he talked to the IMF head when Pakistan was hit by thecoronavirus pandemic and got concessions for Pakistan. He said that Shariftoo should gather some courage and talk to the IMF for the sake of Pakistanand the flood hit Pakistanis. He said that Sharif should not be too muchafraid of the white people.

Khan, who is also chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said theShehbaz government was warned of floods a month ago, but it did not takeany preventive measures. He said the Shehbaz government was now showingconcern for the flood victims, but at the same time it was victimising PTIleaders and putting them behind the bars. When the PTI was in power, hesaid, his government even asked offered to provide food to the oppositionparties that wanted to march on Islamabad.

Earlier, Khan announced he would host a telethon to raise funds for theflood victims.

Taking to Twitter, Khan wrote, “Our senior ldrshp met & we decided I wld dointernational telethon to raise funds for flood affectees on Monday night.Imran Tigers will be activated to volunteer for relief work. A comm underSania Nishtar wiĺl be set up to identify & coordinate funds allocationbased on needs.

“Let me make clear that our movement for Haqeeqi Azadi will continuealongside our flood relief work.”