ISLAMABAD: Saturday, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif criticized PTI leader Imran Khan for blocking the arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari appealed to global financial institutions for assistance in addressing economic difficulties.
In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, PM Sharif said that the former ruling party’s rallies were part of Imran Khan’s “plot to sow discord” in the country.
Moreover, Mr. Sharif asserted that the former prime minister did not desire the eradication of poverty among the populace. First, the PTI leader withdrew from the IMF program, and now he is resisting the courts, he added.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations, Mr. Bhutto-Zardari requested international assistance for Pakistan’s economic revival. He described the delay in the IMF agreement as “the icing on the cake.”
The foreign minister was in New York to preside over two United Nations meetings on Muslim women and Islamophobia. During a news briefing on Friday afternoon, he said that the country is experiencing “a perfect storm of challenges”.
In response to a query, Mr. Bhutto-Zardari concurred with the reporter that Pakistan was experiencing “very tough times”. But some of the causes of this crisis were out of Pakistan’s control.
There are tough economic realities on every continent. We are bearing the brunt of it because we are still experiencing the economic effects of the Covid epidemic in the form of inflation,” he said. The economic impact of the fall of Kabul, where an economically functional state on our border crumbled a year ago, has had an effect on the region.
