‘Official Bheekmange hai…’: Asaduddin Owaisi targets Pakistan on IMF bailout package
India-Pakistan tensions: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday slammed Pakistan on International Monetary Fund bailout package and programs for the country, stating that Pak is an ‘official beggar’. He also raised questions on USA, Germany, and Japan, saying that how did these countries agree to the development.
“Ye official bheekmange hai’. They took a loan from the IMF of $1 billion. IMF is not the International Monetary Fund; they are giving the International Militant Fund to Pakistan. How did the USA, Germany, and Japan agree to this?… Forget leadership, they (Pakistan) don’t even know how to run an economy. You people are sitting there and telling us what Islam is, but all you have are wrong policies to spoil the peace here and create conflict between Hindus and Muslims..,” Owaisi said.
Notably, the International Monetary Fund has recently issued an “immediate disbursement” of 1 USD billion bailout to Pakistan’s troubled economy.
The IMF said it has made the decision allows for an “immediate disbursement of around $1 billion, bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to about $2.1 billion”.
A statement from Pakistan PMO, cited by Reuters and PTI, stated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had “expressed satisfaction over the approval of a USD1 billion… by the IMF and the failure of India’s high-handed tactics…”
However, India, at the board meet of IMF on Friday, registered its disapproval and protest, stating that the fund issued by the IMF could be misused. The meeting was held to review the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) lending programme for Pak. New Delhi even abstained itself from voting.
The International Monetary Fund’s decision coincided with a third night of Pakistani military drone and missile strikes targeting Indian cities and military infrastructure.v
India’s Protest At IMF
Earlier today, New Delhi had opposed the Washington-based global lender to extend loans upto USD 2.3 billion, which included a new reliance and Sustainability Facility lending programme of USD 1.3 billion. India’s abstention from a vote on funding was due to concerns that the money could be used to support state-sponsored cross-border terrorism.
India-Pakistan Conflict
Pakistan on Saturday claimed that its three airbases were targeted by Indian suicide drones and missiles. The Pakistan military spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry, in a press briefing in Islamabad at around 4 am, said that airbases named Nur Khan in Rawalpindi’s Chaklala, Murid in Chakwal, and Rafiqui in Jhang district’s Shorkot, of the Pakistan Air Force, were targeted. However, he refrained from providing more details in order to back his claims.
This claim by Pakistan has come amid the escalating tensions between the two countries following ‘Operation Sindoor’, a retaliation operation by New Delhi for a terror attack on April 22 that claimed 26 lives in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
Notably, Nur Khan air base is located in Rawalpindi, 10 km away from Islamabad. It is the airbase where Pak military has its headquarters.
On Friday night, Pakistan conducted a second consecutive wave of drone attacks against 26 Indian locations, ranging from Jammu and Kashmir to Gujarat. The Indian defence ministry reported that these attacks, aimed at critical infrastructure such as airports and air bases, were successfully repelled.
On Thursday evening, Indian air defence units intercepted at least eight missiles fired by Pakistan towards the border areas of Jammu, including the strategically important Jammu airport, defence sources had said.
Pakistan Denied Any Connection The Pahalgam Attack
Pakistan rejected involvement in the Pahalgam attack and requested an international investigation. However, India presented evidence allegedly connecting Pakistani state and military entities to various global terrorist incidents, citing examples such as the 2005 London bombings and a Russian attack in the previous year.
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