Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa met business tycoons “with his permission”.

Speaking to senior journalists and analysts in Islamabad on Wednesday, the premier acknowledged that inflation and unemployment remain a big problem that his government is trying to resolve.

“Where there is no rule of law people gravitate towards power. The army chief asked for my permission to meet the businessmen and I saw no harm in it,” journalist Amber Rahim Shamsi quoted him as saying.

On the army chief meeting with businessmen: “Where there is no rule of law people gravitate towards power. The army chief asked for my permission to meet the businessmen and I saw no harm in it.”

— Amber Rahim Shamsi (@AmberRShamsi) October 23, 2019

Earlier this month, a delegation of at least 20 businessmen, comprising heads of Pakistan’s leading business houses, had met the army chief to convey their serious concerns about the country’s stagnating economy.

Complaining to him of the government’s tepid response to the debilitating situation facing the drivers of the economy, they had said the government did not go beyond verbal assurances and that its words did not match its actions.

As Wednesday’s meeting continued, PM Imran also categorically said that he will not resign under pressure. He made the statement in response to Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s forthcoming ‘Azadi March’.

Fazl, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief, has threatened to block Islamabad with his anti-government protest starting October 31. The march, which is expected to have hundreds of thousands of participants — mainly religious hardliners from the JUI-F — are expected to enter Islamabad on October 31.