Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed has stated on Friday that leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif is “more corrupt than his brother Nawaz Sharif.”
Rasheed while addressing a presser in Islamaba took a jibe at the Opposition for alshing out at the government’s decision to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
“It is halal if the Opposition reaches out to the IMF but haram if Imran Khan does this,” Rasheed said.
Rasheed further stated that it was “alright for the former governments to seek foreign assistance but an issue is being created when Prime Minister Imran Khan made a similar move.”
“These people [former rulers] have reached out to the IMF 23 times in the past,” he added.
Rasheed while speaking about the IMF’s conditions, which were necessary to ensure the clearance of Pakistan’s sixth review of the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFE) by the Fund’s Executive Board, scheduled to meet later this month to decide the disbursement of the $1-billion tranche, stated that the conditions were tough but the government had to accept them for the betterment of Pakistan’s economic situation.
The minister further stated that the Opposition is going to organise two separate long marches and the government will give them the passage for it.
However, he warned the Opposition of keeping the honour of Pakistan Day of March 23 in view during the long marches when the guests of the Organisation of Islamic Countries session will be visiting Pakistan or else India would again create an issue out of it.
It is pertinent to note that the National Assembly on Thursday passed the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2021 and supplementary finance bill — termed by the Opposition as a “mini-budget” — with a majority vote giving effect to new tax measures in an ambitious bid to achieve a tax target of Rs5.8 trillion as per the requirement of the IMF.
