Asad Umar counters Shehbaz, says PTI govt sealed deals with IMF four times

Islamabad: In reply to Shehbaz Sharif's criticism, Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said the leader of the opposition began his tirade by saying that the nation was being enslaved to the IMF.

"Probably the news hasn't reached him yet that his government sealed deals with the IMF four times," he said.

The minister went on to say that Shehbaz should also recall the situation at the end of the PML-N's tenure.

"I was standing in the same hall. Those were the early days of 2018," he said, adding that PML-N's Miftah Ismail was the finance minister at the time.

"In this hall, I had said that the economy was drowning, that the Titanic was about to hit an iceberg. And Miftah Ismail had agreed," Umar said, adding that Ismail had agreed with him.

"These were the streams of milk and honey that they left behind," he said.

Moreover, the minister said, the opposition had advised that work be initiated on a charter of economy and "it be signed by all".

But when PML-N Supremo Nawaz Sharif was prime minister, the government never signed a charter of economy with the opposition, he said.

The government was sill willing to sit and talk with the opposition, he added.

He said a leaked audio clip of PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and PML-N leader Pervaiz Rasheed wherein inappropriate language was used for journalists.

Umar added  Shehbaz had claimed that his party was ready to support the government on bills pertaining to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

"Just to remind him and the nation, the FATF had placed Pakistan in the grey list during the PML-N's tenure," he said. "And, I challenge them on this floor as they had opposed the bills."