IMF graft report seen as 'charge-sheet against government'

Opposition leaders say govt tried to hide damning report

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR:

Leaders of an opposition parties' alliance—the Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Aaeen Pakistan (TTAP)—have lambasted the government for trying to hide a "damning report" of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), asking as to why the PML-N led administration has not yet responded to it.

The report, published this week, highlighted persistent corruption challenges in Pakistan driven by systemic weaknesses across state institutions and demanded immediate initiation of a 15-point reform agenda to improve transparency, fairness and integrity.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday, Awaam Pakistan party leader Muhammad Zubair and PTI's Taimur Saleem Jhagra questioned why the government released the report only after the IMF set the condition of its unveiling for release of the next tranche of its loan programme.

Zubair said more than 48 hours had passed but no government representative had denied the IMF report, which, he said, had unleashed a storm. He said the incumbent government had come into power through a rigged election, adding that media freedom had ended and the Election Commission of Pakistan dismantled.

"The prime minister used to say that no one can show even one case against the government. And now wheat and sugar scandals have surfaced. Irregularities worth Rs5,300 billion have come to light. We had no idea how the country was being looted."

He said the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) had claimed two and a half years ago that a billion dollars in investment would come but that claim too had proved false. Zubair asked as to what were the reasons that the government kept this report suppressed for three months.

"It was an IMF condition that the report must be made public for the next tranche to be released. We demand investigations into the irregularities mentioned in the report

The former Sindh governor, who left the PML-N just months back, said the cases against PTI founder Imran Khan were fabricated and baseless.

PTI leader Taimur Saleem Jhagra said this report is not even being covered on television, implying that the state now controlled the media completely.

He asked why the government delayed release of the report. "From the opposition platform, we demand an explanation for the delay in releasing this report," he said.

He asked as to what had the so-called hybrid system been doing, adding that the government had not been able to privatize even a single PTI-era entity.

"I would urge you all to read this report at least once. The report states that corruption is a permanent feature of Pakistan's system. It says the cost of corruption is paid by the economy," he added.

Separately, speaking to the media in Peshawar, PTI Central Secretary for Information Sheikh Waqas Akram said the IMF report has exposed the actions of the government, and that the true standing and credibility of the federal government in the eyes of the IMF has now become clear.

He claimed that the international institution itself is exposing the government's actions.

The report, he said, highlights corruption worth 5.3 trillion rupees, weaknesses in the judicial system, the backlog of hundreds of thousands of pending cases, and clashes in institutional powers—clear evidence, according to him, of the government's failure.

He also urged the chief justice of Pakistan to review the points raised in the IMF report.

Imran Khan's incarceration

Akram claimed that by imposing an illegal ban on meetings with PTI founder Imran Khan, the government is openly violating Articles 10 and 14 of the Constitution, and that he has been kept in solitary confinement, despite long-standing law that every prisoner has the right to meet visitors once a week.