Economy was reeling prior to coronavirus: Ahsan Iqbal

LAHORE: PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal has demanded that the government immediately devise a comprehensive policy against locusts’ attack on fields.

“The government announce a financial package to compensate the losses of farmers besides arrangements of required machinery for spray on affected crops on an urgent basis,” he said while addressing a press conference here at the PML-N Model Town Secretariat on Tuesday. He was flanked by Awais Leghari and Azma Bukhari.

Ahsan said that amidst a coronavirus emergency, the scourge of locusts attack destroyed the crops of farmers. “The locusts attack happens every year, which had to be eliminated through proactive approach and timely action, but the government’s incompetence has inflicted huge loss on farmers and agriculture in the country,” he said, adding that the cotton crops in Sindh, Balochistan and South Punjab have been destroyed. He said Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s own district is under locusts attack, but he hasn’t done anything to prevent it, which exposed the provincial government’s measures for the rest of the province. Similarly, he said, the mango orchards and other crops are also under attack in South Punjab, but it failed to move the incompetent government in Punjab and Centre.

He likened proverb “Nero fiddled while Rome burned” to Imran Khan’s spending Eid in Nathia Gali. “The FAO, Pakistan being its signatory, had timely informed the Pakistan government about imminent locusts attack, but the government didn’t move an inch,” he said, adding that the incompetent government is creating more problems for the country every day because they still couldn’t believe that they had come to power rather than being at D-Chowk.

He said the government wants to resolve every problem through harassment of the opposition by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). “The government has created political instability, which is multiplying crises in the country,” he said and added there was urgency for a national consensus and holding of free and fair elections to steer the country out of crises.

He informed that economy had already been reeling prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, while the production of three major crops was consistently declining in the country. “The large scale manufacturing industry has collapsed. The growth rate is the lowest in South Asia, while the currency value is also the lowest in the region,” he added.