Saad Rafique demands Asad Umar apologises, resigns over bankruptcy remarks

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Saad Rafique on Thursday asked Finance Minister Asad Umar to apologise and resign over his remarks that Pakistan is "near bankruptcy".

A day earlier, Umar had said Pakistan’s basic debts have reached alarmingly on such a high level that the country is near bankruptcy.

Speaking to the media outside the accountability court in Lahore, Saad said, “Umar's statement is an attack on Pakistan's integrity and not in national interest.”

"On whose saying and to please whom did he issue such a statement?" the PML-N leader further questioned."

A response should be summoned from the finance minister in Parliament, he added. Rafique upheld, "There is nothing for citizens in Naya Pakistan except for tears."

He added that the running of the country has been handed to incapable people. 

"Pakistan is not safe in the hands of Imran Khan, his team is incapable," Rafique asserted. "PM Imran had said he will make us cry, but he is making the whole nation cry."

The PML-N leader said, "Imran Khan only does one thing that is target opposition leaders, arrest people and scream corruption to distract people from his failures." 

Earlier, an accountability court extended the PML-N leader and his brother Salman Rafique’s judicial remand by 14 days in connection to the Paragon Housing scam case.

The Khawaja brothers were presented before the court as their judicial remand ended today. The court then granted a 14-day extension in their judicial remand.