LAHORE: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif along with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar addressed a press conference in Lahore after reaching the staff level deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a three billion dollars loan earlier in the day.
The prime minister said the development would help stabilize the economy of the country which was facing lots of issues for which he blamed the previous PTI government.
“Today, as you all know, our interaction with the IMF which was under way for many months reached a very positive conclusion and you all must have read the IMF statement. I don’t need to say anything further on it.”
The prime minister said it was necessary to know the reasons for the “mountain of difficulties” that were faced by the people. He said Pakistan was fast progressing development-wise till 2018, adding that it was something even the then-government’s opposition could not deny.
Lambasting the previous PTI government, he said it had shown reluctance in engaging the IMF for talks and delayed the process for six months, adding that once the programme was eventually agreed to it was subsequently violated.
He also said there was “criminal negligence” displayed by the previous government during the Covid-19 pandemic by not availing things in a timely manner such as cheap LNG.
Commenting on the coalition government’s performance in the past year, he said it might have committed “honest mistakes” but also strove to tackle the country’s issues.
“Worst ever floods came [last year], all our energy was spent on [tackling that],” he added.
Regarding his talks with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, the prime minister said he had had multiple conversations and exchanges with her in which the finance minister and his team presented their facts but despite all that, no progress was being achieved.
Comments are closed.