Coalition govt starts mulling over early elections
The government began considering an alternative plan to get rid of unpopular and toughest economic decisions and disobey the IMF terms.
The coalition government has started mulling over early elections in the country to get rid of unpopular and toughest economic decisions and alternative solutions to disobey the IMF terms.
The most difficult economic decisions can be put into the caretaker government’s account, sources told News360.
Economic circles told News360 that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar proposed to transfer the most difficult economic decisions and the IMF demands to do more from the incumbent government to the caretaker government.
Sources said that consultations were held on the proposal during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent visit to London in which the PML-N leadership urged to leave the rest of the unpopular and toughest economic decisions for the caretaker government.
Ishaq Dar is facing pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the toughest economic decisions and strict terms to increase the tax revenue up to Rs600 billion which meant to be the imposition of new taxes, hikes in the prices of petrol, electricity and gas in phases and maintain the current account value at $16 billion.
According to sources, the PML-N is now considering that after the appointment of the new army chief by the end of November and Nawaz Sharif’s return to Pakistan, early elections should be organised in the country.
In this regard, the coalition partners of the incumbent government will be given a comprehensive plan. Under the plan, all difficult economic decisions will be left to the caretaker government and all the most difficult conditions of the IMF will be put into the account of the caretaker setup.
The caretaker government would hold elections within 70 to 80 days and a new government was formed before Ramadan so the new government could prepare the budget.
The incumbent government has a difficult task to appease the IMF on the tough economic decisions as the global financial institution made it clear multiple times that they need the approval of parliament to implement its terms.
It should also be noted that Esther Perez Ruiz -the representative of the IMF in Pakistan, told reporters during a news conference in mid -July that the institution will have no objections to holding negotiations on the loan programme if the federal government in Pakistan is dissolved and a caretaker setup is formed.
