Saudi-Yemen issue: Imran bypassed Parliament: PML-N

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Thursday said Prime Minister Imran Khan should have taken Parliament into confidence before committing mediation between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

“Why he bypassed Parliament on a very sensitive and delicate issue [of Yemen] before making any commitment of mediation,” PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said while talking to newsmen outside the accountability court here.

Marriyum said the people of Pakistan wanted to know details of the role which Pakistan would play in this very sensitive issue having serious implications for the Muslim world.

She asked the government to tell under what conditions $3 billion Saudi loan had been extended to Pakistan and what was the meaning of mediation on the Yemen crisis.

She also asked what was the strategic investment value of Saudi loan, what were the conditions and how it would benefit the people of Pakistan.

“What is the economic vision of the government under which debt servicing will take place; the nation should be kept in picture about all these facts,” she said.

Marriyum recalled that in 2014 the Saudi government had gifted $1.5 billion to Pakistan on the basis of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s ‘credibility and trust’.

She said the PML-N government had also laid down all the details and the same procedure was followed for projects, which came under the CPEC so that the people of Pakistan should know all the details.

“Nawaz Sharif government presented a full strategic plan for commercial viability of this loan and the plan for return of loans taken under the CPEC. On the other hand, the PTI government has failed to present any plan in this regard,” she said.

To a question, she said Imran Khan himself created doubts about the economic viability of Pakistan, as his team lacked economic vision, prudent policies and direction.

“Indecisiveness of the government and doubts created in the mind of investors makes them run away,’ she said holding Imran responsible for the deteriorating economic conditions and chaos.

She also took exception to Imran Khan’s assertion that his government would not extend NRO to anyone.

“Who is asking for the NRO? Who is asking for an NRO from Imran Khan?” she asked.

She said Imran Khan was talking non-sense when he talked about NRO adding that Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif were facing the courts.

“It seems Imran Khan is talking about the NRO with reference to those looters and plunderers who were sitting beside him on the right and left and he is thinking about pardoning their crimes and giving them an NRO,” she said.

She alleged that the PTI government was trying to make the CPEC controversial, but everybody knew that its hue and cry was meant to divert attention away from the situation.