ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) secretary general Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday urged government’s allied parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) not to support the mini-budget and the controversial State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) amendment bill.
“If you –the PML-Q, the MQM-P, and the GDA passed the mini-budget and the SBP amendment bill, your names will be written with Mir Sadiq and Mir Jafer in the history of Pakistan,” he said, while talking to reporters after appearing before the Accountability Court in the Narowal Sports City Complex Project (NSCCP) case.
He also asked voters of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) to press their members of the National Assembly to not vote in favour of the mini-budget and the SBP amendment bill, which gives unprecedented powers to the SBP Governor and will make him a viceroy. He hoped that the government’s allied parties will not vote in favour of the mini-budget and the SBP amendment law in the interest of Pakistan.
He said the federal government wanted to impose a burden of over Rs350 billion on the people through the mini-budget. “Imran Khan is making us a slave of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by accepting their conditions,” he said.
Iqbal said Imran Khan had no development agenda except tall claims and speeches. The income tax of the prime minister had increased thousand times, while the rising inflation in the country had compounded the sufferings of the people, he said.
He said Murree tragedy was one of the clear examples of mis-governance of the present government. “People were calling for help in heavy snowfall in Murree, while the government functionaries were busy in their party meeting,” he said.
The PML-N leader said the prime minister Tuesday said that Pakistan was the cheapest country of the world and commodity prices had increased all over the world due to the Covid-19.
The inflation rate in India and Bangladesh was in single digit, while in Pakistan inflation was in double digit, he said, adding “is there is a different type of Covid-19 in India and Bangladesh.”
Earlier, he and other accused appeared before Accountability Court-III Judge Syed Ashgar Ali in the NSCCP case. The court adjourned hearing of the case without any hearing till February 1 due to power breakdown.
Iqbal said the interest of the government in the accountability could be gauged from the fact that they had so far not installed a generator in the Accountability Court.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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