Pakistan’s new PM vows a ‘simple life’

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN • Imran Khan has said he will forgo the lavish lodgings normally used by Pakistan’s prime ministers and instead live in a three-bedroom house, with only two servants rather than the hundreds usually provided for the head of state, as he prepared the country for an austerity drive.

The former cricketer used his first address after being sworn in as prime minister to rail against waste as his country faces a severe economic crisis.

He said it was shameful that the sprawling prime minister’s house had 524 staff and a fleet of 80 vehicles, 33 of them bulletproof. The cars are to be sold, with only two kept for the new prime minister.

“I want to tell my people, I will live a simple life, I will save your money,” Khan said.

The 65-year-old will live in the three-bedroom residence normally reserved for the military secretary.

He also used his Sunday evening address to call on the rich to start paying taxes and for Pakistanis living overseas to send their money back to domestic banks to help the country’s foreign currency crisis.

In a 70-minute speech, he repeated many of his populist campaign talking points, but offered little detail of how he will stave off an impending economic crisis, the prospect of which his own finance minister has said is dire.

Opposition parties also complained that he failed to mention how the country would deal with growing extremism, which Khan has been accused of emboldening by invoking hard-line issues such as blasphemy on the campaign trail.

Pakistan is said to need an urgent bailout of around US$12 billion to stave off the debt crisis. Loans from China, Saudi Arabia or the International Monetary Fund are all understood to be under consideration. But Khan complained that the country was in a spiral of debt, borrowing to pay off the interest on earlier loans, and would lose respect by begging elsewhere for money. Instead, he called on Pakistani expatriates to send their money back home.

He said: “I want you to bring your money to Pakistan. To keep your money in Pakistani banks. Right now we are short on dollars. There is a huge trade gap right now.”

Khan also spoke of his country’s need to tackle poverty and malnutrition, and promised to reduce some of the world’s highest maternal death rates and infant mortality rates. He said Pakistan was in severe danger from climate change and spoke about the need to educate the 22.8 million Pakistani children who are out of school.