LAHORE: Federal Minister Planning for Development Ahsan Iqbal has said if the coalition government doesn’t follow the IMF agreement, Pakistan’s economic problems will mount further.

“The IMF is pressing for acceptance of its conditions. If we back off it will create more problems for the country,” the minister told a press conference here on Saturday.

He said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had burdened the country with three-time more loans than its predecessors obtained. He said if the coalition government went for further loans it wouldn’t be good for the country.

The minister said PTI chairman Imran Khan was responsible for the present economic crisis in the country. He said Khan had given Rs240bn subsidy (on petroleum products just before his ouster through a no-confidence motion) that crumbled the economy and the coalition government had to take difficult decisions.

“Mr Khan violated agreement with the IMF that created problems for the coalit ion government,” he said and added the PTI chairman was now running a campaign propagating that the country was going to default any time.

Minister blames Imran for violating deal with lender and launching ‘hybrid war’ on issue of default

“Imran Khan has rather launched an hybrid war on the issue of default,” he alleged.

Mr Iqbal said the PTI chairman should stop considering himself larger than the country. He said the coalition government was working hard to steer the country out of crises and the PTI should stop creating hurdles in this regard. The minister said the PTI chairman’s wish for snap polls would never be fulfilled.

“Whatever Imran Khan does to push the coalition government for early elections he will not succeed in his designs as these be held on their time (in Oct/Nov 2023),” he said.

Mr Iqbal said according to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) the delimitation process had begun and would be completed in April next. Subsequently, the general elections would be held in October 2023, he added.

To a question about speculations of technocrat government, the minister said there was no provision in the constitution to form a technocrat setup.

He said Pakistan in 2018 had overcome terrorism but because of inadequate measures adopted by the last PTI government, the menace was again rearing its head. He expressed the hope that the incumbent government would manage to address both economic and terrorism troubles of the country.

Published in Dawn, january 1st, 2023