For which thief, dacoit amnesty scheme brought, asks PPP

Ag Agencies

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Leader of the PPP in Senate Sherry Rehman Tuesday raised several questions regarding the government’s deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and an amnesty scheme, saying who were the thieves and dacoits for which Imran Khan has brought the scheme.

“The government must immediately clarify the terms of the deal before the Parliament and the people of Pakistan,” Sherry Rehman said in reaction to the government’s deal with the IMF and announcement of amnesty scheme.

The PPP leader said the IMF’s official statement says that current arrangements would be rebalanced with the provinces. “What does this mean? This is highly questionable because the NFC is a constitutional matter. Why possible alterations to a resource allocation formula, which is protected by the Constitution through an act of Parliament, are being discussed with the IMF?” asked Sherry Rehman.

“The PTI said it would prefer committing suicide over striking a deal with the IMF, but ever since it assumed power, all they did was taking huge multi-lateral loans. The total in nine months, which has come to Rs3,653 billion, is boggling! Everyone is aware that this government has done the worst kind of borrowing in the history of this country and stacked it on against its future,” she said.

Sherry Rehman said Tabdeeli sarkar has turned out to be Ghulami sarkar. “It has knelt down before the IMF like no other government has ever done. Instead of relief in Ramazan, it has brought the 22nd IMF programme in the harshest of terms and price hikes like none of the previous governments have done. We now wait for the dollar rate to spike and see the terrible downstream hardship it inflicts on the people,” she said.

Sherry said it is going to be a dangerous situation for Pakistan.

“Considering this is just a team level approval, the Board is likely waiting to see how much punishment the government is ready to impose on the people of Pakistan,” she said.

The PPP leader said the government claimed that the amnesty scheme is for the corrupt, if so, to whom is this scheme being offered now.

“Who are the friends who would benefit from this? Important questions are piling up and the government is slowly getting exposed,” said the senator.

“We rejected any ordinance brought in while the Parliament was in session. Is this why both the Houses of Parliament were suddenly prorogued overnight when we were expecting the Senate to pass the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill? So the ordinance could be sneaked in without parliament?” she said. The PPP leader said if the government has good intentions why is it only briefing its members and allied parties on the IMF deal.

“Why is it intimidated by the parliament? Why is it hiding,” she asked.

Sherry Rehman said the prime minister has only come to the Senate once in nine months.

“What kind of Naya Pakistan are they building where democracy and the Parliament are being sidelined,” she asked.

Meanwhile, the PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said he hopes that Prime Minister Imran Khan does not take a U-turn on the recently-approved amnesty scheme, saying that the premier was favouring his relatives through this scheme.

The PML-N leader was addressing a press conference, where he said that in the past Imran Khan and Asad Umar always cast aspersions on the scheme but now this seems fine to them.

Shahid Khaqan said that time has proved that every PML-N policy is picked up by the current government under PM Imran Khan. “This is the first time the IMF programme was given a political outlook,” said Abbasi.

The PML-N Information Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb said that Prime Minister Imran Khan took a U-turn even on tax amnesty.

The PML-N leader said the government took nine months to copy the PML-N‘s tax amnesty scheme. She further said that PM has copied the PML-N scheme but they need capabilities like former premier Nawaz Sharif and his experienced team to implement it.

She taunted that now all the illegal properties and returned goods will be legitimatised. By inflating the ‘Ehsaas Programme’, PM Imran accepted that mortgaging the country to International Monetary Fund (IMF) will increase the poverty and number of poor in the country, she added.