Mahathir facing same problems as my govt: PM Imran.

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Sunday that the Muslim world's most experienced and accomplished statesman, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, faced the same difficulties as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

In a tweet on Sunday, Khan shared a recent blog post by the Malaysian premier and said: 'He [Mahathir] is confronted with an entrenched pol mafia that has bankrupted and indebted Malaysia, leaving state institutions devastated.'

The two leaders share a deep bond with PM Imran praising Mahathir's vision for Malaysia's steady economic progress. The two leaders have pushed for unity in the Muslim world and to curb Islamophobia.

On PM Imran's invitation, Mahathir visited Islamabad and was the chief guest at the Pakistan Day parade on March 23, 2019. In November 2018, Imran led a Pakistani delegation during which the two sides agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in trade, privatisation, foreign direct investment, food, and tourism.

In his blog post, Mahathir underscored the difficulties faced by a new government when it takes over from a 'kleptocratic' predecessor.

'When a new party takes over as a government, it would be a miracle if it were to execute all its plans and promises overnight,' wrote the Malaysian premier. 'It would be an even greater miracle if it can implement its plans and agenda immediately. It is not taking over just any government. It took over from a kleptocratic government which had raped the nation for years, destroyed its finances, undermined its administrative agencies, abused its laws, borrowed well beyond the ceiling permitted, placed the country on the path to bankruptcy, made the people dependent on the government with bribes and generally undermined the moral of the people.

'Of course, a lot of people were happy to enjoy corrupt money and many illegal favours. They would like these bad practices to continue. But the majority of the people knew the sad state of the country and ensured that the corrupt government was overthrown.'

'In other countries when a common objective is achieved, the fragile unity would break up as each party would try to take over. A bitter struggle would ensue. In the end the coalition would break up. In one Middle Eastern country, the ensuing struggles ended up with the military seizing power. It was back to square one,' he analysed.

'The fragile opposition coalition was sustained, even with the inclusion of a non-member party as well as an independent individual who...