IMF mission came to hold discussions with their representatives, says Bilawal

LAHORE: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari slammed the government on Friday, saying that the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) mission had arrived in Pakistan to hold talks with its own representatives. 

Bilawal was speaking to media when he lashed out at the government, saying that the IMF mission had arrived in Pakistan to hold negotiations with its own people. 

He accused the incumbent government of robbing the people of their economic rights, saying that when the PPP was in power, it approached the IMF but protected the people's interests. 

“Whenever they wanted to burden the people of Pakistan then we would fight them,” said Bilawal while talking about the PPP’s decision to approach the IMF.

“The government is not fulfilling the promises it made, and the promises they made were incorrect,” said the PPP chairman. He further lamented that the government took over a year to approach the IMF over a bailout package.

On July 3, the IMF Executive Board had approved a three-year bailout package worth $6 billion to Pakistan. Soon after the agreement was signed, Pakistan had received the first tranche of a loan of $991.4 million from the fund.

The PPP chairman said that the government cannot document the economy at one go when it knows that a “huge section of Pakistan’s economy is undocumented”.

“You are making the businesses afraid. By setting the CNIC requirement you have taken the energy out of the economy,” lamented Bilawal. He added that the government needs to stop believing that those who are not in the tax net are corrupt.

“It is your system which is corrupt and inefficient,” said the PPP chairman.