Central Additional Secretary-General of Pakistan People's Party (PPP)Senator Mian Raza Rabbani has alleged that the federal government had mortgaged the country's economy to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the process of selling national institutions to the private people looked like a conspiracy against the country's sovereignty.
He was speaking at a press conference at the PPP Media Cell on Wednesday. Flanked by Senator Saeed Ghani, Shamshad Qureshi, Lateef Mughal and Manzoor Abbas, Senator Rabbani said that there was a war for taking control over oil reserves across the world, while the countries of the West were eager to keep their control on oil wells. He said that though the PPP did not want to derail the democracy in the country, it would protest against privatisation of key national institutions on all forums.
Privatisation of national institutions was unacceptable to PPP because by doing so the federal government wanted to deprive the masses of their right to bread and butter, he said, adding that the privatisation of national institutions would lead to unprecedented rate of unemployment in the country, which was already at its peak.
Senator Rabbani said the federal government in order to comply with the conditions of the IMF, selling the national institutions on nominal rates to the blue-eyed people through front-men and business partners. He claimed that the IMF had already dictated the federal government to increase electricity tariff and expedite the process of privatising the national institutions. In fact, onward instalments of loans from the IMF would not be released until the federal government complied with the dictates of the IMF.
He said the policies of the government could be judged from the fact that all the meetings with the IMF were being held in Dubai as the IMF delegation had refused to come to Pakistan for the meetings. Senator Rabbani claimed that the federal government had planned to sell out 69 national institutions to the private partners, while only 18 institutions in the list were facing fiscal deficit and even if the federal government would succeed in selling seven of those 18 sick units, they would be bound for compensating the difference through subsidy.
He said the Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL) was a profitable national institution and its profit for the last year had been Rs 90 billion. The federal government wanted to the sell oil exploring national asset to the foreigners. On the other hand, the federal government had subjected the OGDCL employees to physical torture because they were protesting against the privatisation. Federal government had also implicated the protesting employees in fake and baseless criminal cases and they were not even allowed to get bail from courts of law.
Expressing his solidarity with the employees of the OGDCL, he said the PPP was with the workers and would never allow anyone to render them jobless. He also lambasted the federal government for the recent increase in electricity tariff by Rs 0.52 per unit, saying the increase was unacceptable and condemnable because the burden of the enhanced electricity tariff would only affect the poor, who were already being crushed in the wake of sky-rocketing prices.
He also claimed that the federal government had also planned sale of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) and, according to confirmed reports, federal government was expediting work on those two national institutions. He said that it was clearly defined in the 18th Constitutional Amendment that the province would have 50 per cent share from the natural reserves and the remaining 50pc would be for the federation. However, the federal government had failed to take the provinces concerned on board with regard to privatisation of any of the national institution. He warned the federal government to stop selling the national institutions to private hands or else the party would be compelled to take to street along with millions of workers.
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