Daily Times

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sunday said the governme nt wanted to make the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) a “branch of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)” which would be resisted tooth and nail.

In a statement, Senator Taj Haider said the PPP had already rejected the government’s unjust move that had been done on the directions of someone else which was totally against the national interest. Talking to Daily Times, Taj apprehended that it would not only compromise national sovereignty, but would also be damaging for the economy. Already passed by the Lower House of the Parliament National Assembly (NA), the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2021 is now to be passed by the Senate which, observers said, was a test case for the government, as it had less number in the Senate.

Besides the PPP, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) also committed to resist the move. Both the parties have already strongly opposed the aforementioned bill in the NA last week. Not only for the government, observers said, it will also be a test case for the opposition parties’ claims as well. To reply a question, Senator Haider said, “Yet it was not made part of today’s (Monday) Senate proceedings agenda, but we are keeping eye on and fully prepared to oppose it whenever it is to be scheduled,” he said, adding that as this strange government did everything in haste so “I guess this will be put on the agenda all of sudden. But, no problem, we are very clear about this matter,” he reaffirmed.

The PPP veteran senator, who is also elected as head of Senate Functional Committee on Delegated Legislation, further highlighted that the PTI in the past criticized the IMF and its loans but now it was “not making a single economic policy without entailment of IMF” that, he regretted, was highly condemnable. Senator Haider referred to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s speech of July 1948 in which he had clearly said, “The opening of the State Bank of Pakistan symbolizes the sovereignty of our state in the financial sphere.”

The PPP leader recalled that Jinnah had decided to establish the Central Bank of Pakistan “in preference to any other agency for managing our currency and banking,” adding he (Jinnah) established the bank so that it could have a direct bearing on trade and commerce through its monetary policy.