S Punjab bill in NA: Marriyum terms it drama to divert attention from IMF deal

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that bill tabled by PTI MNAs for creating South Punjab province is a drama to divert attention from IMF deal.

She said that Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had not opposed S Punjab province.

The Opposition parties cried foul as the federal government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached a new agreement securing a $6 billion bailout for the cash-strapped country, following months of negotiations between the two sides.

Marriyum Aurangzeb said it was better for Prime Minister Imran Khan “to have committed suicide [making good on his promise] than to have agreed to the $6 billion deal” with the IMF.

Taking to Twitter, Aurangzeb addressed the premier directly. “Imran sahab, your incompetence and ineptitude have made the country a collateral for the IMF. You have handed over the country to the IMF for only $6 billion. “Pakistan’s deal with the IMF is now successful and an ‘inflation bomb’ has been dropped on the people [of Pakistan]. All the relief for the poor has ended and the prices of gas, electricity, and food items are up,” she wrote. Vehemently opposing the new deal, she mentioned positive changes for the country made by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who, she said, “brought into the country Rs60 billion worth of development projects and stabilised the economy”.

Aurangzeb further talked about the new conditions put forth by the IMF, according to which, “there will be inflation in the country, an increase in poverty, and a scary rise in unemployment. “Additional taxes worth Rs1,000 billion will be levied and the [Pakistani] rupee will depreciate further.”

Miftah Ismail, who served as Federal Minister of Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs under the previous government, shared his concern over the implications of the loan agreement in a series of tweets.