Opposition says PM’s meeting with IMF chief unprecedented

ISLAMABAD: The opposition on Sunday said the meeting of a prime minister with the IMF head is unprecedented.

The opposition said the meeting was just a drama and the government has already fulfilled the demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

PML-N leader Khawaja Asif said while talking to media at his residence in Sialkot that the government was its own enemy and does not let the bureaucracy work. “Imran Khan has yet to act upon what he has been saying for 22 years. Economic advisers are leaving him now and for the first time, a prime minister is going to the IMF for money. He (Imran) himself had said it is better to commit suicide than go to IMF for money,” he said.

He also criticised the foreign policy and said it was not in the right direction either.

The PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said the PTI government is the first one in Pakistan’s history that had already covertly enforced the conditions of IMF without declaring them in the Parliament and was now trying to fool the people with “theatrical meetings”.

Responding to the news about PM Imran Khan’s meeting with IMF chief Christiane Lagrade and a possible finalisation of conditions for a bailout package, Marriyum said it was mere theatre. “The government has already implemented the conditions of IMF, which amount to financial lynching of the people of Pakistan,” she said.

Criticising the government over its denial of an IMF package to shore up the economy, the former information minister said the PTI and its leaders had developed the habit of lying about every action, even those that were legitimate.

Marriyum also lamented the prevailing economic conditions, calling them the spill over from the “harsh conditions imposed by the monetary fund, which have manifested in the form of skyrocketing inflation, exponential increase in gas and electricity tariffs, withdrawal of crucial subsidies from farmers and from the Hajj package for the middle-class”.

Marriyum also brought to attention the decline in the value of the rupee, and said the government must inform the people if further devaluation is planned. “The people of Pakistan should brace themselves for another tsunami of inflation as a result of this trip,” she warned.

The PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said the prime minister was carrying the begging bowl throughout the world. He said the country’s economy was destroyed during the last six months.

The PPP leaders also took exception to Imran Khan’s meeting with the IMF chief. Maula Bakhsh Chandio said Imran Khan was pro-dictatorship and democracy was not suitable for him. He said he has never seen a powerless prime minister like Imran Khan.

Saeed Ghani said the prime minister was devoid of political acumen. He said the premier came into power by stealing the public mandate. He said Imran Khan is unfit to run the country. Murtaza Wahab said the prime minister want the rule the country like a Mughal emperor. He said the PTI doesn’t know anything about democracy.