ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Monday said Prime Minister Imran Khan is making four Pakistan out of one Pakistan.
“One Pakistan is where Imran Khan, Aleema Khan and friends of the prime minister are above the law and accountability,” said Secretary Information PPP Parliamentarians, Dr Nafisa Shah.
In the second Pakistan, she said political opponents are being victimised in the name of accountability while he third Pakistan is where the financial cronies of the prime minister are being given undue favours. “The fourth Pakistan is where exploitation of labourers is continued and poor are being crushed and made unemployed like in the case of Steel Mills,” she said.
Dr Nafisa Shah said that the Prime Minister Imran Khan has neither the realisation of the importance of lockdown nor has realisation of destruction of Pakistani economy. She said that the government would not be allowed to hide its failures behind coronavirus. “Imran Khan is limited in his vision which does not go beyond chickens and cows,” she said.
While, parliamentary leader of the PPP in the Senate Senator Sherry Rehman on Monday asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to step forward and take responsibility as the federal government needs to realise that it will be held responsible if the death toll increases because of their lack of planning.
“What Pakistan needs at this time is decisive leadership so, will the PM of Pakistan please step forward and take responsibility,” she said in her response to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech on Monday.
Sherry Rehman said of all people being tested in Pakistan, 20% are reporting positive, which is the 3rd highest ratio in the world. On June 19, deaths crossed the 3200 mark.
She said this number doubled in 17 days and the previous doubling had happened in 18 days and the one before that in 15 days. “If it continues this way, then till end August, we will be looking at 25,000 deaths. And yet we are being told that the situation in Pakistan is under control. Which parallel reality is the federal government living in,” she asked
She said, the first task was to unite the country but instead chosen to divide it at a time of terrible crisis. “BISP which is the only organisation helping and is the most critical element of the economic response to the pandemic, got a 15% budget cut. If the government is actually so concerned about the destitute, then why didn’t it ensure that BISP’s budget was increased?” she asked.
Sherry Rehman said, the prime minister says the government will account for every penny of corona relief fund but till date we are unaware of where the international aid has gone. “We have been asking repeatedly but no heed is paid to it. On one hand he says that Pakistan is a poor country and on the other, he is asking our people for charity,” she said.
She said the prime minister has been consistently saying that he is against lockdowns. She said it is easy to say this when he is comfortably sitting in his Banigala mansion but do we have to wait for the situation to worsen further, for him to consider that a complete lockdown could be a viable option. “High time that the federal government realises that that this pandemic demands them to be proactive, not reactive,” she added.