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PPPP smells a rat in $1.5b package
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) has moved an adjournment motion in the Senate Secretariat to discuss whether $1.5 billion bailout package recently received by the incumbent government from a Muslim country is result of a compromise on the country's existing policy of neutrality over Syria.
PPPP Senator Farhatullah Babar on Friday moved the adjournment motion to be discussed in the next session of the Senate. "We will discuss more points on the motion when it will come in the House for discussion," Senator Farhatullah Babar said while talking to The Nation.
In a statement issued, the senator said the government's claim that national debts coming down by Rs 800 billion as a result of rupee's rising against dollar following the $ 1.5 billion bailout was most welcome but "we need to be reassured there is no quid pro quo and trade-off with a critical area of our foreign policy."
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had stated on Wednesday last that a Muslim country gave Pakistan $1.5 billion for 'Pakistan Development Fund' but he did not wish to identify the donor country. According to the reports of international media, that Muslim country is Saudi Arabia. "The secrecy raises questions. We need to know when was the Pakistan Development Fund set up and for what purpose and what happened to the fund set up sometime back by the Friends of Democratic Pakistan," senior lawmaker of the major opposition party in the Senate said in his statement. He has further questioned that the opposition needed to know whether it was outright a grant, aid or loan and what were the terms of this package.
He said that Syria had the potential of becoming Afghanistan of the Middle East and warned against any misadventure by changing course disregarding the catastrophic experience in Afghanistan next door. It would be a mistake of monumental proportions if they allowed themselves to be sucked into the web of regional power politics in the Middle East.
He said that the alarm bells first rang by reports last month that a Muslim country was in talks with Pakistan for supply of anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets to Syrian rebels.
He said that doubts lingered as the joint statement issued after the visit of a dignitary from the Middle East last month called for regime change in Syria as the joint statement called for the "formation of a transitional governing body with full executive powers enabling it to take charge of the affairs of the country."
He also disputed the assertion of Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to PM on National Security and Foreign Affairs, that this formulation in the joint statement was in accordance with the recent Geneva 1 Accord over Syria. He said that the Geneva 1 joint communiqué stressed ending violence and human rights abuses and "launch of a Syrian-led political process leading to a transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people." There is a sea of difference between a 'political process leading to a transition' as envisaged in Geneva 1 Accord and 'formation of transitional governing body with full executive powers' as stated in the joint statement and there is an ominous ring to it, he said.
Meanwhile, Leader of opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Shah, on Friday raised questions about the status of obtained $1.5 billion, which caused fluctuation in dollar's rate from Rs 108 to Rs 98.
"We have not been told that either this is a grant or a loan. People want to know the magic wand of the economic giants through which this gimmick is being done," said the opposition leader in statement issued here.
He said the government was also unable to tell reasons behind this rapid fall of the dollar. Reportedly, the Prime Minister obtained $1.5 billion from Saudi Arabia on personal guarantee, he said, adding that they were not informed about the status of this obtained money. He said the fluctuation in dollar's rate from Rs 108 to Rs 98 and then again to Rs 100 within a week was very perplexing both for economic experts and the people of the country. "We are afraid this amount has links with the Syrian situation and a very vital project for the economic uplift of the country i.e. Pak-Iran gas pipeline project. The government has also put the pipeline project on the backburner," he said, adding that State Bank was injecting millions of dollars in open market on daily basis and this action was affecting country's exports.
He stressed that the government should avoid artificial economic boom and take measures to strengthen country's economy on solid and consistent basis because consistency in progress alone could ensure economic prosperity.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) has moved an adjournment motion in the Senate Secretariat to discuss whether $1.5 billion bailout package recently received by the incumbent government from a Muslim country is result of a compromise on the country's existing policy of neutrality over Syria.
PPPP Senator Farhatullah Babar on Friday moved the adjournment motion to be discussed in the next session of the Senate. "We will discuss more points on the motion when it will come in the House for discussion," Senator Farhatullah Babar said while talking to The Nation.
In a statement issued, the senator said the government's claim that national debts coming down by Rs 800 billion as a result of rupee's rising against dollar following the $ 1.5 billion bailout was most welcome but "we need to be reassured there is no quid pro quo and trade-off with a critical area of our foreign policy."
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had stated on Wednesday last that a Muslim country gave Pakistan $1.5 billion for 'Pakistan Development Fund' but he did not wish to identify the donor country. According to the reports of international media, that Muslim country is Saudi Arabia. "The secrecy raises questions. We need to know when was the Pakistan Development Fund set up and for what purpose and what happened to the fund set up sometime back by the Friends of Democratic Pakistan," senior lawmaker of the major opposition party in the Senate said in his statement. He has further questioned that the opposition needed to know whether it was outright a grant, aid or loan and what were the terms of this package.
He said that Syria had the potential of becoming Afghanistan of the Middle East and warned against any misadventure by changing course disregarding the catastrophic experience in Afghanistan next door. It would be a mistake of monumental proportions if they allowed themselves to be sucked into the web of regional power politics in the Middle East.
He said that the alarm bells first rang by reports last month that a Muslim country was in talks with Pakistan for supply of anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets to Syrian rebels.
He said that doubts lingered as the joint statement issued after the visit of a dignitary from the Middle East last month called for regime change in Syria as the joint statement called for the "formation of a transitional governing body with full executive powers enabling it to take charge of the affairs of the country."
He also disputed the assertion of Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to PM on National Security and Foreign Affairs, that this formulation in the joint statement was in accordance with the recent Geneva 1 Accord over Syria. He said that the Geneva 1 joint communiqué stressed ending violence and human rights abuses and "launch of a Syrian-led political process leading to a transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people." There is a sea of difference between a 'political process leading to a transition' as envisaged in Geneva 1 Accord and 'formation of transitional governing body with full executive powers' as stated in the joint statement and there is an ominous ring to it, he said.
Meanwhile, Leader of opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Shah, on Friday raised questions about the status of obtained $1.5 billion, which caused fluctuation in dollar's rate from Rs 108 to Rs 98.
"We have not been told that either this is a grant or a loan. People want to know the magic wand of the economic giants through which this gimmick is being done," said the opposition leader in statement issued here.
He said the government was also unable to tell reasons behind this rapid fall of the dollar. Reportedly, the Prime Minister obtained $1.5 billion from Saudi Arabia on personal guarantee, he said, adding that they were not informed about the status of this obtained money. He said the fluctuation in dollar's rate from Rs 108 to Rs 98 and then again to Rs 100 within a week was very perplexing both for economic experts and the people of the country. "We are afraid this amount has links with the Syrian situation and a very vital project for the economic uplift of the country i.e. Pak-Iran gas pipeline project. The government has also put the pipeline project on the backburner," he said, adding that State Bank was injecting millions of dollars in open market on daily basis and this action was affecting country's exports.
He stressed that the government should avoid artificial economic boom and take measures to strengthen country's economy on solid and consistent basis because consistency in progress alone could ensure economic prosperity.