Women are behind the progress made so far in Pakistan, says Governor Muhammad Zubair. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR:
Leaders of an alliance of opposition parties – the Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Aaeen Pakistan (TTAP) – have slammed the government for trying to hide a “damning report” from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), asking why the PML-N-led administration has not yet responded to it.
The report, released this week, highlights Pakistan’s persistent corruption problems, driven by systemic weaknesses in state institutions, and demands the immediate launch of a 15-point reform agenda aimed at improving transparency, fairness and integrity.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday, Awaam Pakistan Party chief Muhammad Zubair and PTI’s Taimur Saleem Jhagra questioned why the government released the report only after the IMF set conditions for its submission for the release of the next tranche of its loan programme.
Zubair said more than 48 hours had passed, but no government official had denied the IMF report, which he said had set off a storm. He said the present government came to power following rigged elections, adding that media freedom had ended and the Election Commission of Pakistan had been dismantled.
“The Prime Minister used to say that no one can present even a single case against the government. And now wheat and sugar scandals have surfaced. Irregularities worth Rs 5,300 billion have come to light. We had no idea how the country was being looted.”
He added that the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) had claimed two and a half years ago that $1 billion worth of investments would be made, but that claim had also turned out to be false. Zubair asked what were the reasons why the government kept this report suppressed for three months.
“The IMF demanded that the report be made public for the next tranche to be released. We demand investigations into the irregularities mentioned in the report.
The former Sindh governor, who quit the PML-N just a few months ago, said the accusations against PTI founder Imran Khan were fabricated and baseless.
PTI leader Taimur Saleem Jhagra said the report was not even covered on television, implying that the state was now in complete control of the media.
He asks why the government delayed publishing the report. “From the opposition platform, we demand an explanation for the delay in publishing this report,” he said.
He asked what the so-called hybrid system had done, adding that the government had not been able to privatize even a single PTI-era entity.
“I urge you all to read this report at least once. The report asserts that corruption is a permanent feature of the Pakistani system. It asserts that the cost of corruption is paid by the economy,” he added.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media in Peshawar, PTI Central Secretary for Information Sheikh Waqas Akram said the IMF report had exposed the actions of the government and the true position and credibility of the federal government in the eyes of the IMF had now become clear.
He asserted that the international institution itself exposes the actions of the government.
The report, he said, highlights corruption worth Rs 5.3 trillion, weaknesses in the justice system, the backlog of hundreds of thousands of pending cases and conflicts in institutional powers – clear evidence, he said, of government failure.
He also urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to review the points raised in the IMF report.
Imran Khan’s incarceration
Akram claimed that by imposing an illegal ban on meeting PTI founder Imran Khan, the government was blatantly violating Articles 10 and 14 of the Constitution and that he had been kept in solitary confinement, despite the long-standing law that every prisoner has the right to meet visitors once a week.
