June 17, 2002	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1423

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ISLAMABAD June 16: The Pakistan Muslim League(N) on Sunday dismissed as untrue, military regime’s claim that it had saved from debt servicing head and that there will be no more need of getting IMF assistance from next year.

Speaking at a news conference here, Ahsan Iqbal chief coordinator of the PML and former deputy chairman planning commission said that it was wrong to assume that debt servicing reduction had anything to with this governments’ power of manoeuvring since it was due to rescheduling of debt which the nation will have to pay tomorrow if not today.

He was also accompanied by party’s information secretary Siddiqul Farooq on the occasion.

Terming three years of military regime a big failure in revival of economy he said if Nawaz Sharif’s ouster in October 1999 was justifiable on account of economic inability why Gen Musharraf’s government can not be measured with the same yardstick and punished for its failure on the same grounds.

Mr Iqbal said, the PML government had inherited an economy in 1997 with 1.7 per cent growth rate and raised the same up to 4.2 per cent in the next two years. “Gen Musharraf owes explanation to the nation as to why he resorted to derail democracy and suspended constitution when he was unable to deliver”, he said.