Islamabad [Pakistan] (ANI): Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Wednesday stated that economic stability will be the biggest challenge for the country's upcoming National Assembly, Pakistan-based ARY News reported.

In his farewell address at the National Assembly on Wednesday, Khawaja Muhammad Asif called for collective efforts to put Pakistan on the path of economic stability by use of own resources rather than depending on foreign loans, according to ARY News report.

Pakistan's leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Raja Riaz said that the previous government's wrong decisions had brought the country to the brink of default, ARY News reported.

Raja Riaz said that the sitting parliamentarians took a wise decision by removing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government through a no-confidence motion. He said that Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stopped the country's economic collapse. 

Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday called his 16-month-long tenure as the "most difficult" test of his life, Pakistan-based Dawn reported.

Lashing out at former Pakistan PM Imran Khan and his dispensation, Shehbaz Sharif said his government had to "bear the burden of the previous government’s failure and negligence".

In his farewell speech at the National Assembly (NA) on Wednesday, Shehbaz Sharif said, "I never had to go through such a difficult test before in my 38-year-long [political] career as the country was mired in a severe economic crisis, oil prices remained high and there was political chaos," according to Dawn.

Shehbaz Sharif began and ended his speech by expressing gratitude to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for electing him as the PM and showcasing confidence in him and backing him throughout his tenure, according to the Dawn. He said that his government did "not send any political rival to jail or bothered them unfairly. This was never our practice." (ANI)