ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra on Saturday said the province has a flood situation on hand which “takes precedence over all else” after finance Minister Miftah Ismail accused the provincial government of conspiring to “derail the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme” in a late-night presser.
In a series of tweets, Jhagra while addressing Miftah, said: “Please note that in these conditions [floods], and without the resolution of the issues highlighted previously, for the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to actually leave a surplus will be next to impossible”.
Jhagra said it was “interesting” that Miftah Ismail called and the two will now meet on Monday “to resolve our issues”. The provincial finance minister, however, said it was “sad” that in “their Pakistan”, one had to “shout to be heard”.
Jhagra clarified that he had not written a letter to the IMF, but to the federal finance minister. The provincial minister also added pictures of the letter he sent.
PTI seeks to upset govt-IMF apple cart?
He further highlighted that he had raised “the same concerns” in his meeting with Miftah on July 5, “but because it was in the national interest, returned the IMF MoU to Islamabad within 24 hours”, with the approval of the K-P chief minister.
He also attached the original letter from July 5 “accompanying the signing of the IMF MoU”.
“The follow-up letter that I sent today was simply in continuation, after about 50 days of repeated attempts to resolve our financial issues fairly and obtain a meeting quickly,” Jhagra added.
He further stated that the K-P government would “never back down from raising its issues at the centre, or from working for a strong federation”.
Meanwhile, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said that the government is running a media campaign worth billions of rupees and that PTI must suspend their campaign of “Haqeeqi Aazadi” for the change of government because of the floods in the country.
He said that the government has filed terrorism cases against the opposition, channels are being closed and journalists are forced to leave the country.
Chaudhry said the worst violence is being done to the political workers, the inflation in the country has reached up to 44 percent, in this situation if Imran Khan suspends the movement, these rulers will devastate the people of Pakistan.
He said that fighting the current rulers and floods at the same time is the need of the hour. He also urged masses to come out for the real independence.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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