Karachi: The assassination attempt on former Pakistan premier Imran Khan and the political uncertainty in the country spooked the investors on Friday, with the Karachi Stock Exchange down by over 300 points and the local currency losing considerable ground to the US dollar.
Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has announced that it will hold countrywide protests after Friday prayers to press for snap elections, a demand put forth by the former premier who was injured after an assassination attempt on him.
Khan, 70, suffered a bullet injury in the right leg when a gun-wielding man fired a volley of bullets at him and others mounting on a container-mounted truck in the Wazirabad area of Punjab province, where he was leading a protest march against the government.
The benchmark KSE-100 index opened in the red on Friday, with the benchmark index dropping after trading began and by mid day it had lost 306.45 points, or 0.73 per cent, to reach 41,784.26 points.
The Pakistan rupee lost ground to the US dollar on Friday, as the green back was trading at 227.75 in the open market.
The market sentiments are down because no one is sure what is going to happen in the next few days, a foreign currency dealer said.
Muhammad Zubair, the head of equities at the Capital investments firm, said there will hardly be any investments until there is clarity in the country’s politics.
Everyone is waiting to see the reaction of Imran and his party and whether we are going to see more politics of confrontation in the coming days, which will only further destablise the economic situation, he observed.
Analysts noted that the markets had shown positive signs before Khan’s assassination attempt, because of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Abdu laziz Al-Saud’s upcoming visit to the country and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recent trip to China to revive the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
Khan was shifted by road to his own-built Shaukat Khanum medical facility in Lahore where an operation was performed and was stable after it, according to his party.
His party said he is stable now.
The party added that he was determined to continue his protest march.
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