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$1.5b grant: Pak opposition moves resolutions

The opposition has moved adjournment motions in the Senate and the National Assembly apprehending the government had received $1.5 billion from a Muslim country to stabilise rupee against the US dollar at the cost of the country’s foreign policy on Syria.

PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar, who has submitted the motion, said he had sought a discussion on the issue in the coming session of the upper house. In the National Assembly, Leader of the Opposition Syed Khurshid Shah moved an identical resolution to press the government to disclose the name of the donor country and the strings attached.

“The claim of national debt coming down by Rs800 billion as a result of a rise in rupee’s value against dollar following the bailout is welcome but we need to be reassured that there is no quid pro quo and trade-off within a critical area of our foreign policy,” he said.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has acknowledged that a Muslim country had given $1.5 billion under the Pakistan Development Fund but it did not wish to be identified.

“The secrecy raises questions. We need to know when the fund was set up and for what purpose and what happened to the fund set up sometime ago by the name of Friends of Democratic Pakistan,” the senator Babar said. — news@khaleejtimes.com