ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif has said that the reports of a mini-budget on International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s direction “sounds alarm bells for national security”.

In a statement on Monday, Shehbaz said that he has once again been proven right regarding government’s “nation-crushing mini-budgets”.

“While PTI’s “lies” have been exposed yet again. The PTI government lied to the people and their Parliament and exhibited criminal negligence in safeguarding national interest and national security,” he said.

He added: “The reports regarding mini-budget on IMF’s direction sounds alarm bells for national security. I’ve warned over and over again that this government has proven to be a grand conspiracy against Pakistan’s economic sovereignty. This mini-budget and legislation regarding GST would make Pakistan’s State Bank a slave of the IMF and the Governor State Bank IMF’s viceroy.”

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He added that there is a serious danger to Pakistan’s defence capabilities and government being paralysed as a consequence of these conditions of the IMF.

“Imran Niazi must resign instead of burdening the country with this mini-budget and the government’s coalition partners must stand up against this mini-budget for national interest,” he said, adding that the joint opposition would resist the mini-budget with all its strength.

He stated: “This would be a pact of slavery of Pakistani people and would spell doomsday for them with the extreme inflation. Price of petrol and electricity would skyrocket further and would make survival impossible.”

Shehbaz added that further increase in taxes would shutter more businesses, further shrink the economy and would cause more unemployment.

He said the budget presented by the PTI was a “fraud” with the nation and “this government had unleashed another hell of inflation on the people of Pakistan”.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021