Musharraf era was good time

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Thursday billed the performance of PML-N government worse than that of PPP regime and lamented that while other the Sub-continent states were showing progress, Pakistan was economically going down.

Speaking here at a news conference along with PTI senior leader Asad Umar, Imran came hard on ex-premier Nawaz Sharif and finance minister Ishaq Dar for bringing Pakistan to the present alarming situation. They alleged Dar had been lying about the national economy, presenting fudged figures about economic indicators.

He cautioned that the second big devaluation in a few months would increase the cost of living for the common citizen. “The cost of petrol, diesel, LNG, cooking oil, electricity, transportation, imported fertilizers and seeds and many other items of use by the people will cost more. This recurring devaluation is the result of the disastrous economic policies implemented by Nawaz Sharif and Ishaq Dar over the last 4 years,” he noted. Moreover, Imran noted that the government levied heavy taxes and surcharges on gas and electricity, making both these inputs most expensive in the region for Pakistani exports. In addition, in order to fudge the budget deficit numbers and artificially show a lower deficit, nearly Rs400 billion of refunds of industry is stuck with FBR.

Imran said that the result of these policies was that for the first time in Pakistan history, exports were lower than what they were five years back while imports had increased to record levels even as exports declined resulting in record trade deficits never seen before in history with the trade deficit reaching $33 billion last year and this year running at a pace even higher than last year.