Lahore - PML-N general secretary Ahsan Iqbal Thursday claimed that the country’s loans had gone up by 70 per cent over the past three years, adding: “The amount of loan each Pakistani owns today has increased to Rs91,000 during this period.”

Addressing a press conference at the party’s Model Town office, he said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had turned the country into ‘Karzistan’ (an indebted land), putting the future of 220 million people at stake.

The PML-N leader also expressed his fear that the country’s loans would be doubled if the interest rate was doubled. He recalled that Pakistan’s economy was growing at the rate of 5.8 per cent during the PNL-N tenure, but the current government had stopped the wheel of development due to its inapt policies. Predicting the fall of the PTI government in the days to come, Ahsan asked the prime minister to show courage and resign to save the country from any further loss. He also accused the PM of dividing the country and said that he was no less than an external enemy.

Opposing the move to give autonomy to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) under the IMF deal, he suspected that the arrangement would prevent the State Bank from probing, ‘what he called’, hot money scandals that might come to surface in future.

He maintained that after getting an autonomous status, the SBP governor would no longer be answerable to any Pakistani institution, and it would work under the IMF dictates. “The SBP,” he feared, “will be pulled out of the Parliament’s control as a result of the anticipated change.” He said that Pakistan might also have to freeze its missile and nuclear programmes on the whims of the money lenders. He alleged that the current government had put the economy on sale.

Talking about the upcoming mini budget, Ahsan Iqbal predicted that the government had plans to impose more taxes worth Rs400 billion and to curtail the development budget by Rs200 billion.

 “This,” he said, “will further slowdown the economic growth besides increasing the cost of the ongoing projects.”

He also castigated ministers’ claims of Pakistan being a cheaper country with regard to prices of commodities. “This country has become a paradise, but only for the ministers,” he said in a sarcastic comment, adding that they had enough money to expand the cabinets but nothing to offer to the poor people.