LAHORE:   -   Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Hafiz NaeemurRehman has rejected the budget as a document of IMF slavery. Addressing a press conference at Mansoorah on Wednesday, he stated that the Finance Minister’s admission of failing to meet the economic targets for the financial year 2023-24 was evidence of the government’s inability to manage the economy effectively. Referring to PM Shehbaz Sharif’s statements following the PDM’s rise to power in 2022, he said the current administration, PDM-II, also appeared to be aimlessly floundering without the capability to set the country on the right path. Shehbaz had claimed that the PML-N, a component of the former PDM government, had sacrificed its political interests to save the economy and Pakistan. Hafiz NaeemurRehman criticized this, asserting, “You and your allies came to power through rigging and failed to provide relief to the people,” directly addressing the PM. He accused the government of granting the IMF full authority for direct interference in national institutions. If the previous 23 programs had not yielded any positive results, the prospects for the 24th were equally bleak, he added.