‘Interference in internal affairs': Rabbani criticises World Bank VP

ISLAMABAD: Former Chairman Senate Senator Mian Raza Rabbani termed the press conference of the visiting World Bank’s Regional Vice President for South Asia as interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs and said that the observation to revisit the NFC and the 18th Amendment is a blatant violation of Pakistan’s political sovereignty.

“It is shameful that the caretaker government allow such staffers from international agencies to meddle in our internal affairs in so blatant a manner,” he said while commenting on the press conference of the visiting World Bank’s Regional Vice President for South Asia here on Wednesday.

Raza Rabbani said Pakistan is not a client state of the World Bank, that it can dictate its constitutional dispensation and resource distribution between the federation and the provinces.

Rabbani said the cat is out of the bag as to why the local lackeys in the civil bureaucracy and political parties have of late been talking about revisiting the NFC and reallocation of resources.

He said Pakistan is a participatory federation, and its resource allocation will be under its political and economic objectives and not on the directives of the international financial imperialists. He said if the World Bank model is to be followed then the provinces demand that all the taxes be collected by the provincial governments and the federal government takes its expenditures from the provinces.

Former Chairman Senate said the internal political fault lines are sharp and deep, this is not the time to open new political issues that can have serious repercussions on the federation.