Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has assured the nation that his government will hand over the reins to an interim setup next month after the completion of their tenure.
“In August 2023, we will give responsibility to the interim government,” he said in a live address on Thursday.
The premier repeated the circumstances in which the coalition government — a group of 13 political parties — came to power in April 2022.
We cleaned up the mess of four years in 15 months and doused the fire that had engulfed the economic and foreign relations front,” he said, adding that during their 15 months in power, the coalition government “saved the state, not politics”.
However, PM Shehbaz added that he is a firm believer that Pakistan can come out of the conspiracies it faces by working day and night.
Coming back to the previous regime, he said that the last International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme — signed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government — was in the way of economic recovery. “However, now the new stand-by agreement has been signed.”
A day earlier, the IMF approved a 9-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for Pakistan for an amount of about $3 billion days after reaching a staff-level agreement with the country.
The premier also thanked China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for “sincerely” cooperating with Pakistan during its difficult time. PM Shehbaz added that his government has also developed a comprehensive plan for economic recovery.
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