PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that the PTI government is the first one in Pakistan’s history that had already covertly enforced the conditions of International Monetary Fund (IMF) without declaring them in the parliament and was now trying to fool the people with “theatrical meetings”. Responding to the news about PM Imran Khan’s meeting with IMF chief Christiane Lagrade and a possible finalisation of conditions for a bailout package, Marriyum said that it was mere theatre. “The government has already implemented the conditions of IMF, which amount to financial lynching of the people of Pakistan,” she said. Criticising the government over its denial of an IMF package to shore up the economy, the former information minister said the PTI and its leaders had developed the habit of lying about every action, even those that were legitimate. Marriyum also lamented the prevailing economic conditions, calling them the spillover from the “harsh conditions imposed by the monetary fund, which have manifested in the form of skyrocketing inflation, exponential increase in gas and electricity tariffs, withdrawal of crucial subsidies from farmers and from the Hajj package for the middle-class.” She also raised questions regarding the premier’s current trip to the United Arab Emirates to meet the IMF chief, and wondered what other conditions the government would agree to. “The people of Pakistan need to know these added conditions on top of the already disastrous steps taken by PM Imran,” she remarked. Published in Daily Times, February 11th 2019.