Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has alleged that International Monetary Fund (IMF) has occupied the Finance Ministry, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) due to incompetent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
"The PTI government has no economic direction. The IMF is deciding about the finance minister and heads of State Bank of Pakistan and FBR. The PTI government should present its deal with IMF in the Parliament for approval," Bilawal expressed these views while speaking on the floor of the National Assembly on Thursday.
He said that the whole PTI government has bowed down before the IMF. "All of a sudden governor State Bank, chairman FBR and finance minister were changed. Are the decisions being taken from somewhere else?" he questioned.
"The man who was taking salary from the IMF till a day ago has become our central bank's governor," the PPP chairman said. He said that the agreement with the IMF would not be accepted if it is not approved by the Parliament.
Bilawal accused the government of committing "economic murder" of labourers, pensioners and youth. He said that the PPP government had sought an IMF package as well but passed on its economic benefit to the public by increasing salaries and pensions and creating more than six million jobs. He claimed that the PTI government has no plan, mission or vision and it is murdering workers, farmers and common people economically. Bilawal said that inflation has reached a new high and common man is drowning in the tsunami of inflation.
He said that the federal government has said that the country is bankrupt because of the 18th Amendment but in reality, the Centre is robbing money of all the provinces. He advised the government to "learn from Sindh" and said that the province had always met tax targets and generated revenue.
He reiterated his demand that those ministers should be expelled from the cabinet who have links with proscribed organisations.
He said that Pakistan is facing multibillion dollars fine after losing a major case at the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) to the asset recovery firm Broadsheet LLC - the firm hired by the NAB. He said that International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an arm of the World Bank, has awarded the case in favour of the Turkish firm M/s Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretim and imposed a fine of $1.6 billion on Pakistan. He claimed that Pakistan faces loss of multibillion dollars in three cases of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) at international courts.
Bilawal said that the government has no vision and is instead focusing on censorship, intimidating through National Accountability Bureau, and filing cases. He said that businessmen and bureaucrats are not ready to work in the country due to fear of NAB.
Bilawal said that the nation is quite perplexed and wants to know who is ruling the nation in reality. Later, Khawaja Muhammad Asif requested the Speaker to give floor of the house to speak but the Speaker allowed Minister for Communication Murad Saeed to speak. After it, the opposition members stood up and started slogan "No baby no, go baby go" during the speech of the minister.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members including former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Muhammad Asif and others gathered around the dais of the speaker and asked him to give floor. The speaker said that he would give floor after the speech of the minister.
But the opposition members kept causing uproar during Murad Saeed's speech.
Murad Saeed gave an angry response to Bilawal's speech, saying that the current government is "exposing corruption of PPP and PML-N leaders." He added that Bilawal knows nothing and is not credible enough to talk about Pakistan's issues.
He said, "He (Bilawal) just waved a chit, claiming that he has become the chairperson of the PPP," He raised questions over the Sindh government's performance and asked Bilawal to pay attention to the recent death of nine-month-old Nashwa who had allegedly died due to medical malpractice. He also drew Bilawal's attention towards the alarming increase in the number of HIV cases in Larkana. Earlier, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad moved a motion to table "The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019" for increasing seats in the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for erstwhile FATA. The House adopted the motion.
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