PM says IMF has no issue with sell-off process

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar has stated that the new government will be required to immediately start negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new programme.

Addressing a news conference on Monday, he said the IMF does not have any issue regarding privatisation as the caretaker government has almost completed all the processes with regard to the PIA.

He said if the new government agrees, all it would be required to implement the privatization whether government-to-government or to individual.

Caretaker cabinet approves PIA’s privatisation plan

He said Pakistan is continuing talks with the IMF and communicating to the Fund as far as the present programme is concerned. Kakar said that peaceful protests are the right of the people and are part and parcel of a democracy, adding that riots would be dealt with according to law.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, he said that speculation about the disruption of mobile phone service was due to reports of threats that non-state actors are planning to sabotage the entire process of the election.

He said that broadband internet was available throughout the country.

He said that this happening (mobile disruption) for years and delay could be afforded but not terrorism acts.

He said that it took 36 hours to compile the results from 92,000 polling stations and it takes time to get the results, but regretted that after a few hours, it was stated that the results were being changed, maybe there were irregularities in the results but delay in the results does not mean rigging.

He added that peaceful elections were held despite the threats, during which international observers were present.

In response to a question about the calls for conducting investigations into the allegations of rigging by the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, he said that these countries have no right to interfere in Pakistan matters.

He added that the investigation would not be done on the demand of the EU, the UK, and the US combined and when there was an attack on Capitol Hill we did not ask them for an investigation.

“We will conduct investigations, if required and for me the demand of PTI’s individual candidate is more important than the UK, the US, and the EU combined,” he added.

He said that free and fair elections are “subjective” terms and the 2024 elections were free and fair and the government did not have any institutional mechanism either in fear or favour of any entity, political group or individual.

He said that of course there were some incidents of irregularities and a procedure was available to address them.

The caretaker premier also paid tribute to all the institutions including the security forces for the peaceful conduct of the elections.

He said that after the 2013 elections, there was a cry of “35 punctures” and subsequently, that was termed a political statement.

He added that at that time, a judicial commission was formed on the issue and questioned as to what was the conclusion of the commission. He said that the caretaker prime minister said that the elections have been held, and now, whoever wants to form the government should form it.

Regarding the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), he said that the decision to conduct polling by EVM will be taken by the Parliament in the future.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024