ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Peoples Party (PPP) on Friday called for transparency on the terms of loans being obtained from international lenders, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“The government is refusing to explain the terms of loans it is seeking from several international lenders and is providing no plan for shielding the poor and the vulnerable from the aftershocks of their policies that is hitting them now,” PPP parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman said while speaking in the house.

In a hard-hitting speech she also criticised the government for increasing the prices of gas, electricity, petroleum products, fertilizers and other commodities and asked if the rise was a result of an understanding already reached with the IMF.

Senator Sherry criticises govt over increase in prices of gas, electricity, petroleum products

She observed that the most pressing issue at the moment was the economic deficit the country was facing.

“There are many people whose stoves are not burning due to the alarming inflation in the country which is nearing double digits. The working class continues to suffer as they try to make ends meet. There appears to be no subsidy or relief package for them,” she remarked.

Blasting the government for what she called its failure to deliver, she said, “This government came in on the back of big promises, but it is clear they have no intention of doing anything but talking about media optics of austerity like leaving big government houses while quietly living in them”.

“They continue to make appearances on television shows but do not want to be answerable to the Parliament. They need to shake off this nonchalant approach to governance. Why has no relevant minister ever bothered with parliamentary answers but has so much time for television shows?” Ms Rehman asked.

She alleged that the government had done nothing apart from its continued witch-hunt.

“All the tall claims of security savings and breaking begging bowls are not manifested in the decisions made by this government since it came into power,” she noted.

Speaking on a matter of public importance, Senator Rehman A. Malik expressed concern over an unannounced hike in the prices of utilities and sought reply from the government as to how the prices are being controlled. “Is there any mechanism in place for the devaluation of the rupee and increase in petroleum prices,” he asked.

He said the country needed a proper mechanism and a specific system to control prices. He said unfortunately manufacturers, vendors and distributers fixed prices according to their own will after every hike in prices of petroleum product and the fall of the Pakistani rupee.

He said there were no checks and balances on the increase of prices and this failure on the part of the provincial and federal governments needed to be rectified. He asked the government to bring an enactment to make a national price regulator act as law by Price Regulatory Commission (PRC) to ensure price control.

Senator Malik strongly condemned the unprovoked firing by Indian forces from across the Line of Control (LoC). He asked the government to approach the United Nations against Indian brutalities against poor Kashmiris and the unprovoked firing from across the LoC.

He demanded discussion in the house on a letter Prime Minister Imran Khan had written to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo of the National Party raised the issue of a raid carried out at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday by around two dozen unidentified persons, who misbehaved with media personnel there. He said journalists of Karachi were protesting and sought to know who those persons were.

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani summoned an incident report from the Sindh government.

Senator Attaur Rahman of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl asked the government to explain if Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who has been acquitted by the Supreme Court in a blasphemy case, had flown out of the country and if not as to why her name had not been placed on the Exit Control List.

Leader of the House in the Senate Syed Shibli Faraz said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already clarified the matter. “She has neither been shifted, nor some arrangement to shift her abroad has been made,” he said.

The House will meet again on Monday at 2.30pm.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2018