PTI govt starting to fall apart: Sherry Rehman

Islamabad: Parliamentary Leader of the PPP in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman spoke to the media outside the national assembly regarding the mini-budget bill and said the entire opposition has been protesting this regressive bill but now it seems as though the PTI government’s artificial majority within the National Assembly is starting to fall apart.

“This government has passed this bill as per dictation from the IMF and will slap enormous taxes on basic items of daily necessities to the tune of 17%. After putting the economy on the ventilator due to their incompetence and disastrous economic policies, this government is now handing Pakistan’s economy off the to the IMF,” she said.

Regarding the conditions of the mini-budget, she said, “This government will now tax essential items such as food and raw materials for medication. According to this government, baby milk, bread, agricultural equipment, seeds, and hundreds of other necessities are luxury items that must be taxed heavily. Even after setting a record of inflation due to their own incompetence, they are propagating false narratives by saying that Pakistan is cheaper than the other countries of the region.”

She continued, “Previous governments had also run programmes with the IMF but the cruelty and callousness with which this bill has been laid out is completely unprecedented. Even their own allies can no longer sit back and watch this country being sold off to the IMF in a deplorable display of recolonisation just for a pay day of a few billion dollars. They are threatening the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable in a country where inflation has already skyrocketed to a whopping 12.3%. This government is falling like a house of cards.”

She concluded by saying, “The manner with which this regressive and dangerous bill has been bulldozed through the National Assembly marks a black day in Pakistan’s history. Scores of people will become victims of the tsunami of inflation. This will have a devastating impact on both the well-being of the people, as well as the development of our economy. This will be the last budget that Tabahi Sarkar passes as it will be their own undoing. No party that puts the demands of an international financial institution over the lives of its own people has the moral or the democratic legitimacy to continue to hold office.”