LAHORE - Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Tuesday warned that country was heading towards economic disaster due to incompetence of the present rulers.
He was addressing at a seminar on “Current Economic Crisis and its Solutions” organized by party’s central Punjab organization at Royal Palm Golf and Country Club here.
“While politics can work on rhetoric and statements, but economy cannot be fixed on mere slogans only,” he said.
Accusing the government of compromising the economy of common Pakistanis, Bilawal advised the government to take the reality into consideration to revive the economy.
He said common man was suffering because of the incompetence of the current government. Bilawal said the PTI government had made the economy drastically worse in the last sixteen months. “You ask the common Pakistani, the vendors, farmers and the workers how they are surviving and they would tell you their economic woes,” he said.
Bilawal believed that government’s economic team was confused about the economic situation. “When your government and politicians are confused, they cannot convey their plans with clarity. In the beginning, the government relied more on Pakistan’s foreign friends and allies instead of presenting their plan in front of the IMF. Consequently, the money that we got did not benefit the common man as much,” he maintained, adding that government’s stabilization measures such as devaluation and an increase in interest rates also proved disastrous for everyone.
PPP Chairman reiterated that both the PTI and the PML-N had no economic agenda to revive the economy. He said the PML-N had also portrayed a wrong picture of country’s economy before 2018 elections and the PPP had pointed out this sorry state of affairs.
He said the PPP and other parties had a different approach to solve country’ economic problems. “We believe that burden should be shared with those that are able to tolerate and withstand it instead of passing on the same to the common man,” he maintained.
Chairman Bilawal deplored that IMF employees sitting in the government were negotiating with the IMF but the PPP would not allow this to happen. “I believe that this way, we can give an answer to them and portray a realistic image that is beneficial to the people of Pakistan and the institutions that are involved,” he said.
Talking about performance of the Sindh government regarding tax collection targets, Bilawal said, “From 2010-2011, the sales tax collection of the federal government was of Rs. 14 billion from the province of Sindh. Then in 2011-2012, when the Sindh province collected sales tax for itself, it was of Rs. 25 billion which is a 79 percent increase in one year. And our average increase vis-à-vis FBR is 22 percent with the exception of one year. We have met each one of our tax targets. Our tax collection in Sindh is 22 percent while it is 10 percent in the FBR.”