‘Govt has borrowed $33 billion in foreign loans’

ISLAMABAD: The Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has criticised the economic policies of the PTI government saying that the only thing Imran Khan struggled for 25 years was to push every Pakistani under Rs 175,000 of debt.

In a statement issued from the Media House, Bilawal House, the PPP chairman termed the PTI government as running a farcical campaign of self reliance and freeing Pakistan from the debt trap, but has so far borrowed over $33 billion in foreign loans. Bilawal feared out that due to the burden of the mounting interest on these loans, Pakistan would have nothing left over for development let alone defence, after paying the government salaries.

Bilawal said while Imran Khan preaches austerity, the PTI government has increased expenditures to the highest they’ve been in 28 years. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan's economic team had borrowed money on tough terms due to which Pakistan would end up costing Rs10 trillion more than the country’s income. "The circular debt in the power sector alone has gone up to Rs 2.5 trillion and in the gas sector to over Rs 350 billion despite multiple increases in power and gas tariffs,” he added. He said that the prime minister had declared not to take any loans, but had in fact paid 82 per cent of the national exchequer, up to Rs2.5 trillion rupees, on loan repayments. “The PTI has created a new circular debt by not refunding Rs 710 billion in taxes to the people and traders,” he added.