G-20 has suspended $3.7 bn loan repayment till year-end: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry Tuesday disclosed that the G-20 countries had suspended the repayment of $3.7 billion loan till the year-end, bringing good news for Pakistan's economy.

“The suspension of loan, which was liable to be paid instantly, is the good news for national economy,” he said while addressing the post-cabinet media briefing. The minister said the federal cabinet meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, was told that the G-20 had approved the second part of Dalhart's Group Seasonal Index (DGSI) under which it suspended Pakistan's $3.7 billion loan.

About the National Assembly episode on Tuesday, the minister said there would now be tit for tat, and the opposition would be allowed to speak only if they would let the prime minister and ministers speak in the Parliament. He said the issue of opposition’s conduct, indecency and insulting behaviour was discussed by ministers during the cabinet meeting and all were of the view that environment during the budget debate should be good and that they had no issue with the opposition’s criticism. However, criticism and insult were two different things, he added.

“Insult in the garb of criticism will not be tolerated at all. Prime Minister has to face indecent conduct of the opposition. “Planning for this is done by Shehbaz Sharif and then the PML-N people are asked to do it. And then two, three MNAs, who consider themselves as rascals, resort to using indecent language, misconduct. But we will not allow it at all now,” he said.

He recalled they were not even allowing prime minister to speak even on his first day in the Parliament. He warned that the House environment would be bad if speeches of PM and ministers would be disrupted. He said the opposition was mistaken in believing that whatever they would do, would be democracy and parliamentary conduct.

“If we will speak, you will also speak, and if you will not allow us to speak, then we will also not let you express your views,” he said and added the opposition should study the budget and then come up with positive recommendations, which would be considered and might be accommodated.

The minister said their demand from the judiciary was that the cases about Shehbaz Sharif should be heard on daily basis, adding that prime minister and the entire nation saw accountability as a joke if for six months each time, cases against him were not heard. “This is nation’s and prime minister’s major concern that cases are registered and referred there and then, are not heard for months,” he remarked.

Fawad said he was surprised when PMLN leader Ahsan Iqbal said that overseas Pakistanis were not aware of Pakistan's problems, though his entire leadership was based in London and had all their properties there. “The N-League is a modern form of the East India Company. The East India Company took money out of India and the Mughals of Pakistan, the PML-N and its leadership, also took money abroad,” he noted.

He said that they shamelessly left the country under the pretext of illness “and now you are watching a polo match in London”. The whole nation is saddened by it and there is a pinch in it. “We respect the courts but the way Nawaz Sharif was allowed to go out without a guarantee, and when they are to come back here, they say Pakistani laws don’t apply upon us,” he contended. Fawad said today's meeting started with the issue of electronic voting machines (EVMs). In our last meeting with the Election Commission, we had requested for a practical demonstration of the machines.