State Bank being handed over to IMF thru legislation: Ahsan Iqbal

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal Friday claimed the government was enacting such a law which would hand over the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) control to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international financial institutions.

Addressing a press conference here, he said that with the new legislation, the SBP would not be accountable to the parliament, the prime minister or any institution of the country and it would only be answerable to the international institutions. He said National Accountability Bureau (NAB), FIA or any other institution would not be able to ask the SBP governor and other officials for any corruption.

“If the prime minister of Pakistan can appear before NAB, then why can’t the SBP governor?” Ahsan said adding it was only to mortgage Pakistan’s economy with the international institutions. “Why are you trying to hide behind the high courts in foreign funding case? There is contradiction in your words and deeds and your crimes are not ignorable,” he added. Nawaz Sharif was declared a traitor when he had talked about setting the own house right in 2016. Had his narrative been implemented at that time, the country would have not faced difficulties at the FATF [Financial Action Task Force] later on, he added. He said only free, fair and transparent elections could fix the present problems of the country.

Answering a question that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was not following the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) policies, he said it (PPP) would go with the PDM at last. He said the PDM power was intact and even if the PPP decided to part ways with it, the former would send the government packing and establish a constitutional government in the country.

Answering another question, he said the PML-N would not negotiate with the incumbent government because they did not have any mandate. “Our establishment, judiciary and leaders should think why Pakistan is not running in a proper way,” he added.

Ahsan said we have no problem with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) now because “we have faced the worst NAB could do to us”. He said now it’s time that Imran Khan should be concerned about it. “Imran Khan you must admit that you have been unable to run the government, so you should resign and go home,” he suggested.

Ahsan said that it was a tragedy that a person had been installed who was trying to hide his incompetence by telling lies. He said Imran Khan said that the previous government did nothing for education. He said the Malakand University project was started in 2015 and two-thirds of the work on the project was completed in the PML-N time.

Ahsan alleged that Imran Khan’s government did not release funds for the project; otherwise, it would have been completed in 2018-19 and it was delayed. “Today you are cutting ribbons of the projects started in the PML-N tenure,” he added. “Similarly, he declared himself the messiah of the workers by inaugurating the old project of workers’ flats, started by Nawaz Sharif,” Ahsan claimed and questioned that what Imran Khan had done for workers in the last three years?“If we borrowed Rs10,000 billion in five years, in return we increased the growth to 3 to 5.8 per cent. If we borrowed Rs10,000 billion, we have done the biggest development in the history of energy infrastructure,” he said and added that “if you want to know what the PML-N has done in its tenure then ask the passenger on the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway.