RAWALPINDI: Awami Muslim League (AML) chief and former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Sunday said the cash-strapped Shehbaz-led government’s downward countdown is expected to begin from July 12 (the start of new wave of inflation including increasing power tariff).

Taking to Twitter, he asked what was the difference between the IMF decisions of former finance minister Miftah Ismail and his successor Ishaq Dar except they are relatives. “Dar’s tone was aggressive initially and then he started bowing before the International Monetary Fund to get the loan approved for nine months.”

He said a new wave of inflation would engulf the masses from July 12, leading to downward countdown of the incumbent government, adding the three governments — the sitting government, the caretaker government and the new government — had to fulfil the IMF’s strict conditions in nine months and pay back $11 billion in six months.

The former minister said the time would tell if the deposit assurances given by the friendly countries would reach any practical conclusion, adding there was no room for errors in the IMF agreement as an environment of now or never had been created.

He said the foreign minister made more than 50 foreign ‘tourism’ trips but is a silent spectator on the IMF agreement. Nawaz Sharif’s coming or not depends on his health and not on politics and the decision of the case.