Data on govt guarantees in 2016: IMF terms PTI govt’s claims ‘lies’: Khaqan

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former prime minister (PM) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, on Friday, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had termed the PTI government’s claims as “lies” with regards to data on government guarantees in 2016.

Talking to reporters, after appearing before Accountability Court-II Muhammad Azam Khan in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) case, he said that no one knew about the agreements made with the IMF.

“IMF has stated in its report that the government of Pakistan is telling a lie,” he said, while referring to the recent IMF report.

When he was asked that according to the IMF the misreported data was related to financial year 2016, which was in the tenure of the PML-N, he said the matter related to the IMF’s claims regarding inaccurate figures should be investigated. “If anything was committed wrong in the past, it cannot become a justification for doing wrong today,” he added.

He said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had become an institution of politics and an institution of accountability. Its clear example was today’s appearance of the PML-N vice president, Maryam Nawaz, before the NAB.

About postponement of Maryam’s appearance in money laundering and illegal acquisition of land case by the NAB due to the Covid-19, he said that was there no Covid-19 yesterday? Was there no Covid-19 the day before yesterday, he asked. Why did the NAB suddenly think about the coronavirus? He said that those were revengeful activities which flared up people.

“Supreme Court had said that the NAB was committing political engineering,” he said.

He said the justice system and affairs of courts were not encouraging. “If the justice system remains like what we see then how the country will progress,” he asked, adding the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should tell what it wanted to do with that country.

The PML-N leader said the “Courts should be respected but when courts fail to provide justice and accountability, institutions become political institutions.”

He said “we were thankful that the country’s prime minister presided over a high-level meeting during isolation as he tested positive for the Covid-19,” and discussed the appearance of Maryam in that meeting.

Abbasi said Pakistan was one of the only countries in the world that had so far not purchased a single vaccine of coronavirus.

He said that according to the Broadsheet Commission the files of Broadsheet were missing from the NAB.

About Kashmir, Abbasi said the whole world was talking about an alleged “deal” between Pakistan and India, “but the parliament has not been informed about it.”

“Have we backtracked from our principled position on Kashmir?” he asked.

He maintained that the alleged “deal” on Kashmir was talk of the town.

About inflation, he said that sugar prices had risen up to Rs110 per kg.

Electricity was most expensive in Pakistan compared to the other countries in the world, he said, adding the price of electricity would be increased up to Rs35 per unit next month.

He said the government was burdening the people to meet its expenses.

Regarding the long march, he said the long march would be held after a final decision.

After he left the court, a NAB witness Amir Haider Malik, in another corruption case, caused panic in the same court, when he told the court recording his statement immediately as he had tested positive for the Covid-19.

The disclosure of the witness caused panic in the courtroom.

Accountability Court-II Judge Azam Khan, lawyers, and others vacated the courtroom quickly after the removal of the Covid-19 infected witness.

The courtroom was then cleaned with a disinfectant, while the Covid-19 infected witness was asked to leave the courtroom immediately.

Later, the Accountability Court-II judge cross examined the witness, Abdur Rasheed in the LNG case in the Accountability Court-I room.

The defence counsel did not complete cross examination, and will continue it, during the next hearing to be held on March 30.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021