ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday announced that the government would hand over the country’s affairs to a caretaker arrangement in August after completing its tenure.
The prime minister announced this in a televised address to the nation, hours after the country’s central bank received $1.2 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the first tranche of a $3 billion bailout to stabilise the economy.
As the premier began his speech, he lambasted the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for breaking the IMF deal for political gains and jeopardizing the country’s reputation.
He thanked China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for assisting Pakistan in its tough times. He hailed the efforts of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for securing the funding from brotherly countries.
PM Shehbaz said he took up the “sacred responsibility” of running the country as the prime minister and working for its welfare.
“We faced several challenges and hardships but steered the country out of deep waters and put its economy back on track,” he said, adding that in just 15 months, the government cleaned the “rubble of destruction” caused in the last four years.
“We cleaned the landmines spread in the way of Pakistan’s interests” and “doused the fire” that erupted because of mismanagement, inefficiency, and conspiracy in running the country’s affairs, including the economy and foreign affairs, the PM said.
PM Shehbaz said that, despite challenges and conspiracies hatched by political opponents, the coalition government had successfully managed to set the country on the right direction in the shortest period.
