Shabbar Zaidi believes Pakistan has gone bankrupt, says govt making false claims

Brushing aside the government’s tall claims about economic achievements, Shabbar Zaidi, the former chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), has expressed the belief that the country has gone bankrupt.

Zaidi made the remarks during his recent speech at the Hamdard University.

The former FBR chairman, however, took to Twitter to say that "only three minutes of his speech have been cherry-picked" and circulated. He said he spoke about the solution as well.

Using the accounting term "going concern" (which assumes that an entity has no plans to liquidate or reduce the size of its operations in any significant way, as per ACCA Think Ahead) as a reference point for the audience, he said that he believes the country, at the moment, has gone bankrupt.

Zaidi added that it is better to accept that a country's economy has gone bankrupt and find solutions rather than deceive people by claiming that it is doing well.

However, in a thread of tweets, Zaidi clarified that his words were taken out of context and had been misreported. While agreeing that he did say that there are issues of bankruptcy and going concern, Zaidi pointed out that we must look at the solution too.

"What I said was with a basis and conviction. I only want to say that [the] whole speech is to [be] read and listened [to]," he added.