ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Parliamentary Leader in Senate Sherry Rehman on Tuesday strongly criticised the government over the deal it has signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package of $6 billion.
In a statement, she raised several questions regarding the government’s deal with the international lender. She said, “Since the government has prorogued both houses of parliament, what we know of the deal, we know through the media. The government must immediately clarify the terms of the deal before the parliament and the people of Pakistan.”
“The IMF’s official statement says that current arrangements would be rebalanced with the provinces, what does this mean? This is highly questionable because the National Finance Commission (NFC) is a constitutional matter. Why are possible alterations to a resource allocation formula, which is protected by the constitution through an act parliament, being discussed with the IMF?” she asked.
The PPP senator stated that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said that it would prefer committing suicide over striking a deal with the IMF but ever since it assumed power, all they did was take huge multi-lateral loans like the $9.2 billion loan. “The total in nine months, which has come to Rs3,653 billion, is even more mind-boggling! Everyone is aware that this government has done the worst kind of borrowing in the history of this country and stacked it on against its future,” she added.
“Tabdeeli sarkar has turned out to be Ghulami sarkar. It has knelt down before the IMF as no other government has ever done. Instead of relief for Ramzan, it has brought the 22nd IMF programme in the harshest of terms and price hikes like none of the previous governments has done so far. We now wait for the dollar rate to spike up and see the terrible downstream hardship it inflicts on the people. This is going to be a dangerous situation for Pakistan,” she further said.
Considering this is just a team-level approval, the board is likely waiting to see how much punishment the government is ready to impose on the people of Pakistan, she concluded.
