I went to Riyadh only because Pakistan is desperate: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday that he had attended the investment conference in Riyadh. Many world leaders and companies were forgotten after the mysterious assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, solely because his government was "desperate". ask for financial help from them.

Khan had left Pakistan for Saudi Arabia on Monday to attend the conference on investment. "The reason I feel I have to seize this opportunity is that in a country of 210 million people, we currently have the worst debt crisis in our history," he said Monday at from an interview with Middle East Eye (MEE) in Medina.

"Despite my concern over Khashoggi's death, I could not skip the conference because we are desperately seeking Saudi loans to strengthen Pakistan's economy," Khan told the interviewer before leaving for Riyadh.

While addressing the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh on Tuesday, Khan highlighted some of the key issues facing his government and plans to address them.

"We desperately need new loans to repay our previous loans. We have asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and our friendly countries to improve the economic situation in which our country is located, "Khan said.

He warned that the next three to six months will be difficult for his country. "Our institutions were destroyed because corrupt people held positions of responsibility in the past, but we took steps to strengthen our institutions and increase our exports," he said.

"We need to increase foreign exchange reserves with remittances from 8 to 9 million Pakistanis working abroad, we must encourage exporters and create investment opportunities," Khan added.

Insisting that Pakistan's two main problems are corruption and poverty, Khan said his government has sought help from the Chinese government to end corruption and poverty in Pakistan. "In the last five years, China has cracked down on corruption and we need to find ways to fight it because white collar crime is hard to convict. Second, they took a lot of people out of poverty.

Responding to a question about relations with neighboring countries, the prime minister said that Pakistan's relations, particularly with Afghanistan and India, were crucial, but expressed disappointment that New Delhi did not respond at the initiative of dialogue taken by Islamabad.

"We need stability and that means peace with all the neighbors. We currently have problems with Afghanistan and India, but I'm afraid we have not received any response from India. In fact, we were put off by New Delhi, "he said.