Sheikh Rashid ridicules govt for failing to secure IMF deal

RAWALPINDI: Awami Muslim League Chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Monday ridiculed the government for failing to secure a deal with the IMF and said one more week had passed without a staff-level meeting with the IMF, and even no help has been received from Saudi Arabia and China.”

The caretaker Punjab government will flee after 90 days and the country will be ruled by the masses, he said in a Twitter message. He expressed his fears about the political turmoil in the country. “It seems that 90 days of April, May, and June will be very horrible,” he wrote in his message. The process of filing of nomination papers had begun and the Election Commission was still in a fix, he added. In reference to Toshakhana, he said the matter had gone beyond court martial. Sheikh Rashid warned that soon starving people would tear Section 144 into 144 pieces.

Referring to the recent violence against the PTI workers in Lahore, Sheikh Rashid said he had seen Attock Fort during Gen Ayub Khan’s rule. But, the violence against the vulnerable people and women by this government is hitherto unheard of. Many people have laid down their lives for democracy, including the “five martyrs of Lal Haveli.” He described the death of Zila Shah as “a deep wound inflicted on the nation’s heart.” In Pakistan, “the poor are born only to go to jail and die in jail, while the elite are born only to rule.”