Staff Reporter
Islamabad
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Wednesday that every Pakistani demanded that the PTI should tear its current agreement with the IMF and renegotiate its term with the international money lender.
Speaking to media outside the parliament, Bilawal said: “We are not saying that don’t go back to the IMF, we are emphasising on the fact the government should renegotiate the deal, keeping in mind Pakistan’s economy and how it runs, they should not accept the terms of the IMF completely.”
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and State bank, the government’s own institutions, have said that a record inflation has hit the country, he said. “The State Bank has said that even if you add up the loan procured by previous governments, it is less than that of the incumbent government,” Bilawal said.
“The FBR has informed that the tax collection is at a shortfall of Rs400 billion,” he said. Bilawal said that when the opposition questioned the government about the shortfall, all they received were personal attacks instead of answers. “We can withstand their personal attacks but the people of the country belonging to every class, cannot bear the government’s economic policies.” “Since this government has taken charge the journalists are not getting paid, it is tough for them to even run their own houses,” Bilawal said.
“Hafeez Shaikh was the finance minister in our tenure, but he was not given such freedom in decision-making back then. The PPP-led government always made a deal with the IMF in accordance with the demands of Pakistanis,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a statement the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan and the Pakistan Bar Council have slammed the country’s anti-graft watchdog over a notice it sent to PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and called for the PTI government to focus on public welfare.
SBCA President Syed Qalb-e-Hassan and PBC Vice Chairman Abid Saqi “strongly condemned” the notice sent by the National Accountability Bureau to Bilawal, wherein it has summoned him for appearance on February 13 in relation to the fake accounts case.
