ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari yesterday said Prime Minister Imran Khan should apologise to the nation for International Monetary Fund deal, which allegedly ruined the country’s economy.
“It is not enough for the PM to admit his mistake in the IMF deal. He should have listened to us before entering into the deal with the IMF, instead of now reviewing it,” the PPP Chairman said in a statement.
He said that the buck stops with Imran Khan and that the Prime Minister could not constantly try to stave off criticism and save himself by scapegoating others.
Criticising the prime minister, the PPP chairman said that Imran Khan’s admission that the IMF deal was wrong was actually an acceptance of his incompetence.
“First, he claimed that he would rather consider suicide than sign a deal with the IMF, then after delaying until terms got harsher, he defended and signed on to conditions that have crippled Pakistan, and now he is making another U-turn on policies he championed till a month ago. Imran Khan makes mistakes, acknowledges those mistakes and then goes out and repeats the same mistakes all over again. This is a country, not an elementary school,” he added.
Imran makes mistakes, acknowledges them and then repeats same mistakes. This is a country, not an elementary school
Bilawal announced that his party would thwart government’s plan to bleed the people with new taxes of up to Rs 1,200 billion at behest of the IMF.
He added that the federal government had overseen crippling price hikes of electricity, gas, and petrol at the behest of the IMF. “Imran Khan claims to be free of influence in his decisions, but in reality the economic fate of the people of Pakistan has been abdicated to a few salaried employees of the IMF,” he said.
Bilawal said that crushing the people under burden of excess taxation at whims of the IMF was dereliction of duty, and a dishonor to the integrity of the country.
The PPP Chairman said that Imran Khan’s decision to devalue the rupee on the IMF’s dictation had been catastrophic for the nation, the consequences of which were being borne by the people today.
“If Imran Khan had taken Parliament into confidence before the deal with the IMF, the people would not have been drowning in tsunami of inflation today,” he added.
He blamed record unemployment figures in the country on the asinine economic policies of the government. He pointed out the bitter irony in the fact that the ruling party that had promised to create 10 million jobs but instead made millions of Pakistanis unemployed.
Bilawal also reiterated his and the PPPs unwavering commitment to ensuring the economic freedoms of the people.