The ousted prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairperson Imran Khan has said that he had warned the ‘neutrals’ - a term that is a reference to the army - that the ‘conspiracy’ against him would lead to economic ruin.

“It is very good that you have decided to be ‘neutral’ but that doesn not mean that you should hand over the country to dacoits and corrupt people,” the PTI chairperson said while addressing a public gathering in Buner, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday.

“Will a man like Zardari, who asked the US for help against the Pakistan army, file a treason case against me,” he asked while warning the government against filing a treason case.

“The (PML-N led) government came to power on the heels of a foreign-funded conspiracy and they now want to get rid of me by filing a treason case against him.

Lashing out at the incumbent government, the PTI chairman said that the ‘imported’ government’s incompentence is to blame for the state of the country’s economy.

He said that the PTI-led government did not cave in to the pressure of the International Monetary Fund. “Instead, we provided relief to the masses by giving subsidies on petroleum,” he said.

During the PTI-led government’s tenure, the prices of petroleum products were raised by Rs56 but within the two months of the incumbent government, the per litre price of petrol has been increased by Rs 60.

He said that Pakistan became the partner of the US in its war against terrorism and made great sacrifices and thousands of people lost their lives in US drone attacks. “But it was the previous governments that allowed the US to conduct drone attacks that killed innocent people,” he said.

“The imported government’ could not say no to their foreign masters.”

Lashing out at MQM founder Altaf Hussain, Imran Khan said that he was the biggest terrorist who killed hundreds in Pakistan and was in London for 30 years.

“Will Britain allow us to conduct a drone attack to kill the terrorist wanted by Pakistan” he questioned. Britain would ask to first prove in the courts that Hussain is a terrorist, he added.

Speaking about his government’s performance, he said that during PTI’s tenure there were record exports and the industrial sector was developing.

According to credit rating agency Moody’s, the PTI-led government put the economy to stable from negative growth. “But since the last two month, the country’s economy is again tracking towards negative.”