Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairperson Imran Khan on Sunday said he hoped United States President Donald Trump would extend his ban on Muslim refugees to Pakistanis as well, reported Dawn. “I pray that Trump bans Pakistani visas so that we can focus on fixing our country,” said Khan, according to the daily.

Khan reportedly said that Pakistan’s situation can only improve if the people work for progress. He added that most educated Pakistani leave the country to find “gainful employment”. “The day we bring back the merit system back to Pakistan, all our best citizens will return and work for the betterment of this country,” Khan added.

The PTI chief said the day the country will stand on its own feet, they won’t have to ask for loans from US and the International Monetary Fund. He also alleged that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had taken money from the country and spent it abroad. Khan praised Iran’s retaliatory move to restrict US nationals from travelling to their country until America lifted the ban.

The four-month curb signed by Trump is specific to seven Muslim-majority countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. “We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas,” he had said on Friday. The new order immediately halts a US programme that allows for the relocation of people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice to the United States. The ban has met with protests at several airports, while eminent leaders have voiced their disagreements with the order.