ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has urged the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government to take Parliament into confidence on the terms and conditions of agreement with International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the revival of the Fund program.
On July 3, 2019, the Executive Board of the IMF approved a 39-month extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan for an amount of $6 billion to support the authorities' economic reform program.
PPP Secretary General Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari said that the political parties and Parliament are unaware about the negotiations, which are being held with the IMF on tough terms and conditions. He said that it is learned through newspapers that Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has left for Washington to talk with the IMF.
The PPP leader said that accepting more IMF terms for increasing the prices of petroleum products, gas, and electricity would be tantamount to inviting a tsunami of inflation to the country. He said that negotiations with the IMF means to further inflation and misery in the country.
Bukhari said that the PTI government should take Parliament into confidence before talks with the IMF. He said in a statement on Tuesday, "Pakistan is an independent country, how can the IMF dictate it? PPP has serious concerns over the IMF's proposals. The PPP rejects all these conditions of the IMF."
Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) Central Information Secretary and the Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Shazia Atta Marri has also said that Prime Minister Imran Khan's "destructive" government should tell us about the statistics of all foreign loans in Parliament, which they had taken during the last three years.
She said in a statement on Tuesday that the government should also inform the nation about the foreign visit of unelected federal finance minister. "Imran Khan had seized the nation in heavy burden of loans. The unelected people like the federal minister for finance were playing with the future of the nation and prices of the petroleum products, electricity, gas and other essential commodities are being increased at the behest of foreign financial institutions," she said.
Meanwhile, PPP Secretary Finance Senator Saleem Mandviwala has said that Farrukh Habib's statements regarding access to the PPP's financial documents are "lies" and contradict the facts. He said that the fact is that the PTI's fake accounts case is pending before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
In a statement, Senator Mandviwala said that Farrukh Habib has tried to discredit the party by accusing the PPP of hiding 12 accounts before the verdict.
"Farrukh Habib's statements before the ECP's decision are tantamount to influencing the case. How did Farrukh Habib announce the decision of the case before the decision of the Election Commission," he asked. Senator Mandviwala asked the ECP to take immediate notice of these statements by Habib. He said that the PPP has submitted all the documents related to the accounts.
He challenged Habib to prove allegations against the PPP. He said that everyone knows that not the PPP but the PTI itself is running away from the fake accounts case. He said that one of the reasons for the attacks on the Election Commission by the federal ministers is that they know that their theft is being caught.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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