ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former finance minister Ishaq Dar said on Saturday the government should renegotiate a $6 billion bailout package provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the country, saying it was putting extreme financial burden on the people of Pakistan.
Dar is a close aide of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who is in self-exile in London. Sharif is the founding leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party which is currently leading the coalition government in the country.
The former finance minister told a local news channel that rising inflation and depreciation of Pakistan’s national currency were at the heart of the country’s prevailing economic problems since they were making it difficult for the government to address the financial problems of people.
Pakistan’s new finance minister Miftah Ismail recently met IMF officials in Washington and requested them to increase the size and duration of the $6 billion loan program. He also agreed to reverse oil and gas subsidies for the resumption of the IMF program which was stalled after the country’s previous administration announced a relief package of about $1.7 billion in February.
Dar, however, said the IMF loan in its current form had become detrimental to the country’s economic interests.
“We should have the spine to talk to them [the IMF] in national spirit,” he told Geo News, adding: “This program was onerous. It was very badly negotiated. Who are they [the IMF] to tell us where our currency should be? Who are they to tell us where our interest rate should be?”
Pakistan is currently facing significant economic challenges, as its fiscal deficit is expected to rise and its foreign currency reserves are running low.
The country’s former finance minister said the opposition had decided to bring a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan to fix the economic situation, though he warned it would not happen overnight.
“There is very limited time since [the parties in the new government] are committed to moving toward fresh elections after taking necessary steps,” he maintained. “I don’t think that any party – whether it’s the PML-N or its allies – has come to complete one and a half years in power. They are just there to do essential things such as electoral reforms etc. in national interest before moving toward elections.”
Asked why federal ministers from his own political party were saying the government would finish its tenure, he said the election commission had already said it could not hold the polls before October.
However, he emphasized it was everyone’s preference to hold new elections since all the political parties in the new administrative setup had been saying themselves that the last general elections were “stolen.”
Dar maintained the federal ministers who said the government was going to finish its tenure were presenting their own opinion, not the party policy.
In response to a question of what Nawaz Sharif wanted under the present circumstances, he said the founding leader of PML-N also hoped to move toward fresh elections as soon as possible.
Pakistan should renegotiate IMF bailout package, says influential leader of ruling PML-N party
https://arab.news/2a7hh
Pakistan should renegotiate IMF bailout package, says influential leader of ruling PML-N party
- Ishaq Dar, a close aide of ex-PM Nawaz Sharif, says everyone wants fresh elections in country
- Government recently urged the IMF to increase the size and duration of its $6 billion loan program
Suicide bomber attacks security check post in northwestern Pakistan, kills civilian
- Sixteen civilians, two security personnel wounded in blast near the Afghan border town of Miran Shah
- Attack comes amid rising militancy as Pakistan steps up military campaign across the Afghan border
PESHAWAR: A vehicle-borne suicide bomber targeted a security check post in Pakistan’s northwestern district of North Waziristan on Friday, killing at least one civilian and wounding 16 others, several critically, police and hospital officials said.
The attack struck the Chashma Sarband check post on the Bannu–Miran Shah road in Miran Shah, the main town in the restive tribal district bordering Afghanistan, police said.
The blast comes amid a resurgence of militant attacks in Pakistan’s northwestern border regions and growing tensions with neighboring Afghanistan, where Islamabad says armed groups responsible for violence in Pakistan are based.
“Sixteen civilians were among those wounded, four of whom were in critical condition,” said Dr. Asif Iqbal, the medical superintendent at the district headquarters hospital in Miran Shah.
“One person has died at the hospital,” he said, adding that more injured victims were expected to be brought in.
Police spokesman Fazal Khan said the vehicle-borne suicide attack targeted the security checkpoint along the busy highway.
Two members of the security forces were also wounded in the explosion, he said.
Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sohail Afridi condemned the attack and ordered authorities to submit a report on the incident.
“The incident in which civilians were injured in the Miran Shah Chashma check post explosion is tragic,” he said in a statement.
Afridi directed officials to ensure the best possible medical treatment for the injured and said emergency services and hospital staff had been placed on high alert.
“Cowardly acts of terrorism cannot weaken the resolve of the government and the public,” he added.
Pakistan has witnessed a rise in militant violence in recent months, particularly in regions bordering Afghanistan, where officials say groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, operate from bases across the frontier.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities of sheltering militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies.
The tensions have escalated further after Pakistan launched air strikes inside Afghanistan earlier this year targeting what it described as militant camps, triggering cross-border clashes between the two neighbors and prompting Islamabad to expand military operations along the frontier.
Pakistan says the campaign, dubbed “Ghazab Lil Haq,” will continue until militant threats from across the border are neutralized.
