Islamabad March 14 2023: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would reach within a few days as the government had accepted even the “toughest” conditions put by the global financial institution.
The prime minister, in an interview with a private television channel said joint efforts were being made by both his economic team as well as other national institutions to make this process a success.
The prime minister spoke at length on multiple national issues including the one-year performance of his government, the economic situation, elections, Tosha Khana record, party matters as well as probe into the murder of news anchor Arshad Sharif.
He said while assuming the government, he never knew that his predecessor Imran Khan had not agreed on such conditions with the IMF which he later backed out to hurt undermine Pakistan in the world as well as among global institutions.
“This is why the IMF is making us accept those conditionalities and seeking their implementation. No doubt, these conditions have burdened the common man,” he commented.
He said realising the common man’s suffering, the government had decided to provide relief through Benazir Incom Support Program. However, he said the imported inflation caused by the Ukraine war also hit the country in form of increased fertiliser and oil prices.
Besides the floods also hit the national economy, ex-prime minister Imran Khan’s “shameful” lies about regime change by the US also created uncertainty.
The prime minister told the interviewer that friendly countries like China were supporting Pakistan despite the fact that Imran Khan had hurt their brotherly ties.
Recounting the baseless allegations leveled by the PTI leadership against him through local television channels as well UK’s Daily Mail, the prime minister said the latter apologised and the UK’s National Crime Agency also exonerated him from the charges hurled by that time government.
