Asad Umar's resignation catches backlash from PTI's rival political parties
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari claimed that the decision would yield better results for economy
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari – following an abrupt announcement by former finance minister Asad Umar on Thursday to not take any cabinet position – asserted that removal of Umar as a finance minister would yield better results.
“We [PPP] hope that other minister those have affiliations with banned outfits would also be removed,” he said.
“The government has come to realize after eight months that their economic policies were faulted,” he added, while claiming that economy of the state would improve after such a decision.
Former Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair Umar strongly criticised over what he termed as “ineffective policies” of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in [resolving core issues of the general public and economy in particular].
He called it “a failure of the government” and claimed that Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has lied to the public.
He further claimed that PM Khan had tried a lot to put the blame of [failed economy] on previous governments.
“However, today things are clear following the resignation of biggest champion of Imran Khan,” he went on to say.
Reports are being speculated on the media that in the next few days more reshuffling is possible in the federal cabinet, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial cabinets.
Dr Salman Shah, a Lahore-based Economist and former caretaker Finance Minister of Pakistan, told the media that the dismissal of Asad Umar as a finance minister would not affect Pakistan’s bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is likely to happen in the end of April.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb also reacted on the development by stating that if the government’s policies were all good, then what has happened.
She took to Twitter, and stated why Asad Umar was asked to leave the position of finance ministry.
“His removal as a finance minister is evidence that Imran Khan’s economic policies have failed [to deliver],” she said.
“The real problem lies with Imran Khan himself, and not Asad Umar,” she concluded.
Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, the spokesperson for PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, congratulated the people of Pakistan for what he called “a wicket lost to the PTI on demand of the PPP.”
“PTI’s more wickets will fall soon,” he stated. “The whole team of the PTI will walk dejectedly back to the pavilion well before 50 overs.”
He claimed that PM Khan has pushed the country towards worst crisis.
“Following economic crisis, the country has been hit with governance crisis. Selected PM could neither control foreign affairs nor economy,” he said.
Umar recently led a delegation to Washington DC to hold talks with International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB). The finance ministry had sought formal meetings with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on the sidelines of the IMF-WB spring meetings.
