ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Thursday questioned the economic performance of ruling PML-N what it called a bankrupt economy and said that it was worse even than the last PPP’s rule and the military ruler Pervaiz Musharraf’s era.
PTI also demanded the resignation of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar soon after National Accountability Bureau (NAB) would file a corruption reference against him in the accountability court.
Addressing a press conference along with other party leaders, Imran Khan lashed out at “bad” economic performance of the PML-N government during the stint of Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister. Contrary to the past practice and instead of criticising the PPP, Imran Khan appreciated the economic performance of the last PPP government as compared to the PML-N.
The PTI chief’s soft remarks about his worst political opponent — former president Asif Ali Zardari – forced reporters to ask from him whether his party was going to enter into an electoral alliance with the PPP in next general elections. However, Imran Khan skipped the question while only passing a smile.
Describing the performance of former prime minister Nawaz’s government on the economic front as the worst in the history, Imran said Nawaz Sharif in its GT road rally was wrong to say that he left the government with a booming economy by questioning the people why he was ousted.
Talking about the “seven points unfolding the bad economic conditions” of the PML-N government, PTI chief said the incumbent government got loans including foreign loans so much that was never earlier got in the history of Pakistan. Secondly, he said the exports of Pakistan have collapsed and were far behind than Bangladesh and India. There is deficit between the exports and imports of the country.
Thirdly, Imran said the foreign investment that came during Nawaz regime was even lower than PPP’s and Musharraf’s eras. “The investment during Zardari regime was much better than the incumbent one and it was also higher during Musharraf regime,” he said. He lamented Nawaz government had been consuming Rs2.7 million budget per day on foreign tours but it attracted the lowest ever investment even besides the initiation of CPEC project. The main reason of this is corruption.
Imran said the country was still facing the worst power shortfall even after more than four years of this government, The circular debt was on the rise and the rates of the electricity have been increased very much despite the fact 40 percent of the power is produced through oil whose prices have decreased all over the world. Talking about the fifth point, he said that the agriculture sector of the country had ruined.
About the sixth point, he said the claims of Ishaq Dar were wrong that tax revenue had increased. The government has increased the tax revenue only by imposing indirect taxes on the electricity and gas prices.
They don’t collect the tax from the rich. He alleged that last chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was a corrupt bureaucrat who was involved in money laundering abroad amounting to millions of rupees.
At the end, Imran said the state institutions like Steel Mills and PIA were facing the worst losses during the incumbent government even than that of Zardari regime. “I want to question how Nawaz Sharif is claiming that he left behind a booming economy and the country was on the track to progress,” he said. He said that Pakistan could get benefits of CPEC if its own house would be in order and unfortunately that was not. He alleged that when the contracts of Metro Trains and the Orange Line Train would open for scrutiny, then they would know how much Sharif family had made money through kickbacks.
About his interview to BBC, he said the performance of PTI-led KP government was the best among others and he had only talked about the difficulties his party faced in the province to bring reforms. “I had asked that whatever we have learnt from KP was fantastic and had reviewed the four years performance of the PTI’s government,” he said adding that he had not at all surrendered in KP.
About the question of construction of a swimming pool amounting to millions of rupees at the Chief Minister House in KP, he said the idea was that the big investors should be invited to stay in the CM House free of cost to encourage investment in the province. He said the new investment had come in the province in bulk.
Responding to other question, he said PTI had observed some flaws in the local government system and the next time, district nazims would be elected directly through party-based elections. He said MPAs in the province resisted because PTI distributed development funds through local bodies.
PTI MNA Asad Umar in his presentation given to the reporters on the economic conditions said the PML-N government got loans amounting to Rs10,800 billion as compared to Rs50,000 billion of last PPP regime and Rs2,000 billion of nine years of Musharraf regime. During the last five years, Pakistan’s exports decreased from $25 billion to $21 billion while Bangladesh’s increased up to 30 percent during the same time period. He said PML-N government increased foreign reserves through loans and now these were on the decline. Pakistan is moving towards another bailout package.