Progress on much awaited revival of International Monetary Fund (IMF) program was being shared by the government in form of reaching Staff level agreement with Pakistan. However, former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin blamed Miftah Ismail for “constantly telling lies” that the federal government had reached an agreement with the IMF, claiming political uncertainty as the cause of continuously depreciating rupee against dollar.
Read more: Shaukat Tarin reveals IMF and government deal
He demanded for holding early general elections in the country and offered support by the PTI in establishing an interim setup.
Speaking to a news conference, Tarin raised a point that if the government had reached an agreement with the IMF, then the currency would have been stabilized.
Also, Tarin mentioned that soaring inflation, and continuous devaluation of the currency resulted in loss of public confidence in the government and called for early general elections. He added, “your credibility has finished and there is only one solution – announce general elections and bring a credible interim government.”
According to Tarin, there is no inflow of any amount in the country by the IMF or any friendly state. He added that ongoing economic crisis are a consequence of political uncertainty in the country.
Read more: Govt. misleading the public on economy: Shaukat Tarin
Prior to this news conference, Miftah claimed in his press conference that the country had reached an agreement with the IMF and emphatically sated that the government would implement it.
He stated that following the deal with the IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank had also opened their financing for Pakistan, and that some friendly countries had also promised to assist the country in meeting its financing shortfall.
According to the finance minister, one friendly country has offered to supply oil worth $1.2 billion on deferred payment, another has expressed interest in investing in the Pakistan Stock Exchange, and a third has expressed interest in providing gas worth $2.4 billion on deferred payment.
Tarin claimed during the news conference that the current government was purposefully worsening the economic situation in order to avoid early elections.
When comparing the PTI’s economic performance to that of the PML-N, Tarin stated that the former had a $17 billion current account deficit. While the PML-N government had left a current account balance of $20 billion.
He also linked people’s lack of confidence and the rupee’s depreciation to the Punjab by-elections, stating that the business community anticipated a change of government and predicted a “storm of inflation” ahead.