Pakistan PM Imran Khan on Wednesday said it was time for the nation to “stop glorifying” money launderers who he said caused damage to the country and impoverished the people.

Tuesday night national address where he heaped scorn on opposition parties and announced a high-powered commission under him to probe how successive governments took loans worth Rs 24 trillion in the last decade and brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy.

He said no protocol should be extended to such elements who are “seeking refuge behind democracy” a reference to members of the PML-N and PPP parties. Khan’s address came after a budget session in the National Assembly and arrests of Punjab assembly opposition leader Hamza Shahbaz and former president Asif Ali Zardari.

The government claimed its defence budget was kept unchanged at Rs 1,152,535 million for next fiscal. But official documents showed there was nominal increase of 4.5% in the defence expenditure as compared to last year.