PPP asks govt to update parliament on IMF talks

Sherry wants the conditions agreed with the lender revealed

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Sherry Rehman on Monday demanded of the government to take parliament into confidence regarding the negotiations taking place with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an intended bailout package.

Talking to reporters, the PPP leader said parliament should be informed about the talks and the conditions on which they had gone to Washington for signing the deal. She criticised the finance minister for leaving the country in haste.

“Without taking parliament on board raises important questions and it is our right to ask them. Firstly, what conditions had he agreed to sign the deal on? Secondly, what other concessions was he willing to offer? Because it seems their terms are already being implemented. It appears that the visit was all about showing the lenders the government’s good performance,” said Sherry.

She also said the government could not even manage to secure a meeting with the US treasury secretary on the sidelines of the talks, “one wonders if they had done their homework prior to the visit”. Moreover, the delegation was forced out of the US-Taliban Doha talks, she said, adding: “we want to know on what trajectory is their relationship with the US and the IMF”.

On the imminence of the annual budget, Sherry said the fact that the annual budget is near and the finance committee meetings are not happening even though it is April, is unprecedented.

Sherry added that there were many questions that needed to be answered such as the terms of the agreement with IMF, “Is it going to be a stabilisation programme? Where would the dollar settle? Where do they want to take the taxation? Are the terms going to be made more stringent than they already are?”

How then is the government going to run the country, the PPP leader asked and said is the incoming budget going to be based on the amnesty scheme only?

“Opposition’s joint meetings will be held and we will discuss a mutual course of action. The government has already introduced multiple budgets and yet it has no economic policy or way forward. We will certainly raise questions especially as to what their real purpose is,” she said.

Sherry said: “Two notified sessions of the National Assembly and Senate saw a last-minute postponement, which never happened before. We have strong reservations about it. The government did this to pass the tax whitening amnesty scheme because it knows it lacks the strength in the parliament”.

Reacting to the government’s saying “it will teach the opposition a lesson”, she said “We will see and they will see how the people will treat them for squeezing them and not delivering on their promises.

The only two changes this government has gifted to the nation are: a poor economy and use of profanities. They are only busy in sidelining parliament and hijacking all the institutions”.

The PPP leader said the government is repeatedly trying to pin the blame of their “dysfunctional governance” on the system but the opposition will not let any ulterior motives of this government to materialize.

“Are they not aware of Pakistan’s history? About how many times it has had the presidential system and how it fared? Do they not remember 1971” she asked?