PM urges all political forces to sign charter of economy for country’s sake

• PM Shehbaz urges all political parties to evolve consensus over national issues.
• "India has not gone to the IMF since 1991," says PM.
• Says PML-N would accept public mandate in upcoming general elections. 

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has once again urged all political parties to agree on unanimous charters of economy and democracy to evolve consensus over national issues to steer the country out of crises.

Addressing a ceremony in n honour of Danish School Graduates in Lahore on Saturday, the PM said no difficulty can hinder the progress of the country “if we all sit together and end our differences”.

The PM went on to say that in spite of having trillions of dollars worth of mineral resources, Pakistan’s economy has been dependent on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout packages.

“India has not gone to the IMF since 1991, how many times have we gone,” PM Shehbaz lamented.

PM Shehbaz said the government had to “beg” for an IMF bailout package as it had become inevitable to avert the looming default.

He added that though the country has successfully averted the default threat, the IMF’s stand-by agreement should be treated as a breather to put the economy on the path of sustainable growth.

“Let's [sign] a charter of the economy. Let’s work together on the charter of democracy,” the PM said asking all stakeholders to bury the hatchet to work for the betterment of the country.

‘Pathetic performance’

Earlier today, the prime minister urged the people to consider the facts involving the “pathetic and poor performance of the corruption-tainted government of Pakistan Teheek-e-Insaf (PTI) with that of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) which has always been the pioneer of mega development projects”.

He was addressing a ceremony after stone laying of different significant development projects which included 19kms long Lahore bypass linking Kala Shah Kaku with the Lahore-Karachi Motorway at a cost of Rs35 billion.

The PM said they would accept public mandate in the upcoming general elections and if the PML-N under the leadership of its supremo Nawaz Sharif got another opportunity to serve the country, they would restore the real image of Pakistan.

“If the PML-N was in the government during the four years of PTI’s rule, the country would have had a different destiny,” he added.

He also questioned PTI chief Imran Khan's claims of recovering $300 billion “plundered wealth” stashed outside Pakistan within ninety days saying the previous government did not get any single penny during its four years in power.

Referring to the Rs50 billion amount recovery scandal, he said, the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) had investigated the issue and after of court settlement with the other party, decided to return the amount to the government exchequer but it did not go to State Bank of Pakistan rather went to the Supreme Court “where Niazi’s government became a party”.

“It was a huge crime as to how the national exchequer was plundered,” he said, adding that BRT Peshawar, Toshakhana, Malam Jabba, sugar scams etc were the other major corruption cases of PTI.

— With additional input from APP