Women are the reason for the improvement Pakistan has made so far, says Governor Muhammad Zubair. PHOTO: ARCHIVE
ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR:
Leaders of an alliance of opposition parties, the Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Aaeen Pakistan (TTAP), have criticized the government for trying to cover up a “damning report” by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), asking why the PML-N-led administration is yet to respond to it.
The report, released this week, highlighted persistent corruption challenges in Pakistan driven by systemic weaknesses across state institutions and called for the immediate initiation of a 15-point reform agenda to improve transparency, equity and integrity.
At a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday, Awaam Pakistan Party leader Muhammad Zubair and PTI’s Taimur Saleem Jhagra questioned why the government released the report only after the IMF set the condition of its submission for releasing the next tranche of its loan programme.
Zubair said more than 48 hours had passed but no government representative had denied the IMF report, which he said had unleashed a storm. He said the current government had come to power through a rigged election, adding that freedom of the press had ended and the Election Commission of Pakistan had been dismantled.
“The prime minister used to say that no one can file a single case against the government. And now wheat and sugar scandals have emerged. Irregularities worth Rs 5,300 crore have come to light. We had no idea how they were looting the country.”
He said the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) had claimed two and a half years ago that $1 billion in investments would be forthcoming, but that claim too turned out to be false. Zubair asked what were the reasons why the government kept this report suppressed for three months.
“It was a condition of the IMF that the report had to be made public for the next tranche to be released. We demand that the irregularities mentioned in the report be investigated.
The former Sindh governor, who quit the PML-N just a few months ago, said the cases against PTI founder Imran Khan were fabricated and baseless.
PTI leader Taimur Saleem Jhagra said this report is not even being covered on television, implying that the state now completely controls the media.
He asked why the government delayed releasing the report. “From the opposition platform we demand an explanation for the delay in the publication of this report,” he stated.
He asked what the so-called hybrid system had been doing, adding that the government had not been able to privatize a single entity from the PTI era.
“I urge everyone to read this report at least once. The report states that corruption is a permanent feature of Pakistan’s system. It says that the cost of corruption is borne by the economy,” he added.
On the other hand, speaking to the media in Peshawar, PTI Central Secretary Information Sheikh Waqas Akram said that the IMF report has exposed the actions of the government and the true position and credibility of the federal government in the eyes of the IMF has now become clear.
He asserted that the international institution itself is exposing the government’s actions.
The report, he said, highlights corruption worth Rp 5.3 trillion, weaknesses in the judicial system, the backlog of hundreds of thousands of pending cases and clashes in institutional powers: clear evidence, according to him, of the government’s failure.
He also urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to review the points raised in the IMF report.
Imran Khan’s imprisonment
Akram claimed that by imposing an illegal ban on meeting PTI founder Imran Khan, the government is openly violating Articles 10 and 14 of the Constitution, and has kept him in solitary confinement, despite the long-standing law that states that every prisoner has the right to receive visits once a week.
