Country may face default if IMF deals not implemented: Maryam

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) Vice President Maryam Nawaz said on Thursday that the country faced the threat of default if it did not implement the agreements reached by the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“The government is bound to implement these agreements; otherwise, there is risk of the country’s default,” she said while talking to the press outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC). She said the coalition government was taking big decisions to stabilise the economy and implement agreements signed by the PTI government with the IMF.

She said former prime minister Imran Khan played with the country’s economy during his four-year tenure. He signed an agreement with the IMF to increase the prices of petroleum products and impose levy on it. She said the PTI government did not increase the prices of petroleum products deliberately before leaving power.

About the recent statement of DG ISPR, she said the statement was based on facts as he was the representative of security agencies and institutions which were aware of everything. “A lie cannot be presented as the truth,” she added.

Maryam said Imran Khan was an established liar as the National Security Committee stated again and again that no foreign conspiracy was found against the PTI government. Imran Khan put the state institutions and the country’s security at stake for his petty political gains, she said, adding that the former PTI government should have told the public about its performance in the last four years. Ex-PM Imran Khan mortgaged the country to the IMF for the sake of loans and the current government was bound to implement his agreements, she added.

About her father Nawaz Sharif’s statement on ex-president Pervez Musharraf, the PMLN vice president said the statement was based on humanitarian grounds as her father didn’t believe in revenge.