PTI pushed 33pc population below poverty line in three years: Shehbaz

KARACHI: PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif said that PTI had not only erased the economic gains made under the PML-N government but had actually dragged the county back into an economic crisis.

“Today, after 3 years of PTI rule 33 percent of Pakistanis are below the poverty line and 40 percent are facing food insecurity,” said Shehbaz Sharif, while addressing a dinner hosted by Karachi’s business community at the residence of MNA Shaikh Qasier.

“Inflation is constantly increasing every week with the cost of fuel, essential commodities and food items are going upward and are getting out of the reach of the hardworking Pakistanis”.

“Inflation has skyrocketed from 3 percent under PML-N to 17 percent under PTI; cost of medicines has soared by 500 percent; flour price went from Rs35 to Rs 85 per kg; sugar from Rs52 per kg to Rs 120 per kg; electricity from Rs11 per unit to Rs 22 per unit with the circular debt shooting from Rs 1100 billion to Rs2,300 billion; gas cost up by 146 percent; lentils up by 40-80 percent; price of fertilisers double and cost of electricity for irrigation tube-wells has risen from Rs 5.35 to Rs 15 per unit,” he said. The PML-N president said Imran Khan government increased national debt by 54 percent by borrowing in 3 years over half of what was borrowed over the past 71 years before PTI rule. “This government has added Rs9,000 billion to domestic debt and Rs4,000 billion to foreign debt, he said. This, he said, means that PTI was adding Rs4.747 trillion debt every year to the nation.”

He reminded the business community that under PML-N, Nawaz Sharif rescued the country from 18-hour load shedding and the menace of terrorism. “Nawaz Sharif set the country on the highway of economic progress by completing development projects worth trillions. Nawaz Sharif not only brought CPEC into Pakistan but under his leadership it was fast-tracked and projects were completed in record times, he said. “Nawaz Sharif saved hundreds of billions of dollars of the country in these projects.”. “What did PTI achieve by the 45 percent devaluation of the rupee after plummeting national currency from Rs115 to Rs169 against the dollar? What dramatic spike in exports did PTI show?, he questioned. “Where was the team of 200 experts that were to take the Pakistan Steel Mills out of debt? Where were the 10 million jobs, and why were the jobs of 5 million people snatched away instead? Why is the PTI government increasing debt servicing from Rs1,500 billion to the historic high of Rs4,000 billion this year.”