Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, while criticising the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for "record inflation" and "borrowing" urged the government to re-negotiate the terms and conditions of its agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"The PTI government's agreement with the IMF is not acceptable and it should be re-negotiated. The government is economically murdering the people. The ruling PTI should not be bargaining on the economic independence of the country. The government has to leave if it fails to give economic relief to the common man," PPP chairperson expressed these views, while addressing a news conference outside the Parliament on Wednesday.
He said that every citizen of the country want the government to withdraw from its current agreement with the IMF and re-negotiate its term with the international financial institute.
The PPP chairperson said, "We are not saying that don't go back to the IMF, we are emphasising on the facts that the government should re-negotiate the deal, keeping in mind Pakistan's economy and how it is run, they should not accept the terms of the IMF completely."
Bilawal said, "Hafeez Shaikh was the finance minister in our tenure, but he was not given such freedom in decision-making back then. The PPP-led government always made a deal with the IMF in accordance with the demands of Pakistanis."
He said that the PPP government had negotiated a deal on its own terms and condition with the IMF during their tenure.
"We did not compromise on the common man's financial rights," Bilawal said.
The PPP leader said that there was no benefit for the poor people on reduction in the current account deficit and urged the government to focus on the common man's plight.
"Balancing current account deficit will not feed a poor man," he said.
Criticising the adviser on finance, PPP chairperson said that instead of what Bloomberg and IMF had to say, "the government should ask the people of Lahore, Hyderabad, and Gujranwala their opinion."
He said that the federal government was compromising on citizens' financial rights, while dealing with the IMF.
Bilawal said that the PTI was incapable of running the economy and the country.
Answering a question, he said that democracy was under threat and the PPP would not accept any other system even if the incumbent government falters.
He said that the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and State Bank, the government's own institutions had said that a record inflation had hit the country.
The PPP chairperson said, "The State Bank has said that even if you add up the loan procured by the previous governments, it is less than that of the incumbent government."
He said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had informed that the tax collection was at a shortfall of Rs400 billion when the opposition questioned the government about the shortfall, all they received were personal attacks instead of answers.
He said, "We can withstand their personal attacks but the people of the country belonging to every class, cannot bear the government's economic policies."
Comments
Comments are closed.