Economic Survey paints darkest year: PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Focal Person for Economic Affairs Muzammil Aslam Thursday termed the outgoing financial year the darkest in Pakistan’s history and said the government had conceded its own incompetence. In his reaction to the publication of the Economic Survey, he charged, “This is the darkest year in Pakistan’s economic history. In this survey, the government has admitted its own incompetence,” he claimed. He said Pakistan’s GDP growth rate was 0.3 per cent this year, compared to 6 per cent last year. According to Ishaq Dar, he noted 6 per cent growth rate was wrong, then why did he not correct it? The focal person contended that Dar remembers 2013 and 2018 instead of talking about today and Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal and his team photographed with the prime minister as if it was the best year in the history of Pakistan. Muzammil pointed out that the finance minister only revealed the figures that were good and those which were bad were hidden. He explained in the 3.5-year rule of the PTI, there had not been a single talk of bankruptcy of the country.

“There is talk of bankruptcy every week after the PDM government came to power. Ishaq Dar should at least tell how he has saved the country from bankruptcy. Foreign exchange reserves are only $4 billion and $30 billion is payable,” he said. The government, he said, withdrew from IMF conditions after accepting them. “How can you say that you saved the country from bankruptcy: Compare the years 2021-22 and 2022-23 and see in which era more money came from friendly countries,” Muzammil argued. “According to statistics, published by you, you took a loan of Rs15,000 billion in a year, while the PTI borrowed Rs18,500 billion in 3.5 years. You have broken the 76-year record of inflation, which is 38 per cent, and there is three times more inflation during your tenure than during the PTI’s tenure. Prices of food items have come down by 22% in the global market,” he added.

Ahsan Iqbal’s rhetoric, he charged, is regarding 2035 instead of next year’s performance and that Ahsan Iqbal is the only minister in the world who sits in his room and makes vision with three people, who had talked about taking exports to $100 billion in the vision of 2025. He has taken exports from $25 billion to $20 billion since his government came to power. According to independent economists, he pointed out, the growth rate is minus 3 per cent, then how can it be that the big industry is falling below 8 per cent and the small industry is growing by 9.5 per cent? “You are saying crops were destroyed by floods, but livestock increased: How can you say that diesel sales fell by 25 per cent and transport increased by 4.5 per cent? You have probably never seen the Pakistani economy as deeply as we see it: If you are still adamant that your statistics are correct, then do a debate,” Muzammil challenged the finance minister.