LAHORE: Lambasting the government over skyrocketing inflation in the country, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was not working for the people of Pakistan but for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“The government does not realise that the people are unable to cope with inflation,” he said. “They [the government] have been misleading the nation for three years. Tax inflation, rising debts, Imran Niazi is working for the IMF, not for the people of Pakistan,” Shehbaz claimed on Friday.
His remarks came a day after the government sought the federal cabinet’s approval to increase electricity tariff, reneging from a four-month-old stance to not further raise the rates in a bid to remain in the IMF programme.
The opposition leader claimed that what he had said in his budget speech proves to be true and the government proves to be false. He added that such severe inflation is creating serious problems for the economic viability of the country, which is not a good omen for the country.
“It has been proved that the government has deceived the people in the name of budget. If this government continues the economy will collapse,” he said. The PML-N leader further termed the imposition of 17 percent sales tax on tax-exempted items, increase in petrol and electricity prices as “terrorism” against the people and the economy.
“Inflation, unemployment and economic catastrophe are already at an all-time high,” he said. “The government has dropped a new bomb and Imran is sacrificing the economy and the nation on the IMF’s altar.”
He said that a government that blindly acts on the terms of the IMF does not care about public interests. “Imran Niazi himself is taking steps that will increase inflation. Then they complain to the nation that the people do not understand the reasons for the rise in it,” he said. “However, the people are well aware of what is happening to them and who is perpetrating this injustice every day.”
He further said that the problem is not understanding the nation but the corruption, lies and historical incompetence of the (current) rulers for which the people of Pakistan are being punished.
