KARACHI:  Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged the federal government to do re-negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) so to get a new financial aid package as the present IMF package for Pakistan is not capable of safeguarding rights of the country’s poor men.

Addressing the launching ceremony of Peoples Urban Forest here at Lyari Expressway here on Tuesday, he said that present IMF package for Pakistan was not acceptable to the PPP as it was incapable of protecting the rights of poor people.

He said that federal government should do re-negotiation with the IMF to secure an economic package without doing any compromise on the interests of Pakistan and that of its poor people. He said that the negotiations done by the federal government with the IMF to secure the present economic aid package had not taken into account potential of Pakistan regarding its productivity and deliverability.

The PPP chairman also on the occasion announced to launch a countrywide movement in the country from March against the present unjust economic aid package of IMF for the country. He said that unemployment, poverty, and price-hike had increased phenomenally in the country since the federal government had unveiled its last budget prepared on the directions of the IMF. He said that last budget had caused economic miseries to people owing to the sheer incompetence and failure of the federal government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

PPP Chairman said that federal government had completely failed to provide any relief to masses though before coming to power the PTI had promised to provide 10 million jobs and five million houses to the countrymen. He said that federal government had failed to create any job opportunity while instead of constructing five million houses, it in actual had demolished houses of poor people in the name of anti-encroachment drive.

He said that economic policies of the PTI’s federal government were anti-people as they always meant to do economic murder of the poor people. He said that Sindh government of PPP in the last financial year had received Rs 100 billion less from the federal government than its due share as prescribed in the National Finance Commission’s Award while in the present financial year it had received Rs 140 billion less from the centre on the same account.

Bilawal said that Sindh government despite facing paucity of funds had been doing its best to carry out development projects in different sectors as its performance in this regard had been far better than the federal government and rest of provincial governments in the country.

He said that federal government had been using different tactics to do away with the Benazir Income Support Programme without considering its utility as the country’s first social safety net unveiled by the past PPP’s federal government in the country . PPP Chairman said that under similar intentions of the federal government, names of some one million women had recently been unduly removed from the database of the BISP.

He said that only Peoples Party was capable to safeguard the rights of poor people in the country as it had done so whenever it had come to power in the country. Bilawal said that the PPP with support of masses would once more come to power, would form a peoples’ government in the country, while it would unveil schemes for resolving problems of poor people.

PPP chairman appreciated the plan of Sindh government to launch the urban forestry scheme in Lyari and Malir areas of Karachi as once this plantation drive would be completed, people of Karachi would get the biggest urban forest of the world. He said that PPP’s Sindh government had special focus to carry out development schemes in Karachi as being the capital city of the province.

The PPP chairman urged the Sindh CM to play his role to get vacated from the possession of law-enforcement agencies the Peoples’ Football Stadium in Lyari so that the facility would once more be used for sporting activities by the residents of Karachi.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Peoples’ Stadium should no more remain under the possession of the law-enforcement agencies after improvement of law and order situation while the facility should be available for the recreation of the residents of Lyari.