KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday asked the federal government to renegotiate the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in line with the “country’s productivity and deliverability”, otherwise the party would launch a countrywide movement against the government from next month.

Speaking at the launching ceremony of the Peoples Urban Forest Programme in Lyari, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari denounced the federal budget for 2019-20 as it was proposed and prepared by the IMF.

“We don’t accept this [government-IMF] deal,” he said. “The people of Pakistan don’t accept it. We ask the government to renegotiate its deal with the IMF. And the new deal should be made in line with the country’s productivity and deliverability. Otherwise what is happening now, it would further worsen. This ‘PTIMF deal’ had brought the flood of inflation, unemployment and the frustration among the people. We will not leave the ground and resist such anti-people moves. We will be launching a movement against this PTIMF deal from March,” he said.

Threatens to launch anti-govt movement in March

Mr Bhutto-Zardari recalled policies of the PPP under its founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who came up with a novel idea of manpower export to create better employment opportunities for Pakistanis. The legacy, he said, was followed by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto bringing in the country more investments and introducing business-friendly policies.

“What this [PTI] government knows is how to snatch facilities from people,” he said. “Under the same agenda, they targeted the revolutionary Benazir Income Support Programme. First they removed the photo of BB Shaheed from its logo, then they changed its name and finally they removed some one million people from the list of those who were getting financial support from the exchequer. This puppet government can never come closer to people,” he added.

The PPP chairman blamed the federal government for cutting Rs140 billion fund of the Sindh government which had badly affected progress on the social development projects in the province. But still, he claimed, his party’s government in the province was trying to achieve its targets within the available resources calling its performance much better than in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2020