Sherry for taking stock of economic woes

ISLAMABAD: PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate Senator Sherry Rehman Friday penned a letter to Chairman Senate’s Finance Committee Talha Mehmood and asked him to defer the routine agenda of the committee on December 6 and get a briefing on the state of Pakistan’s perilous economic situation.

“I am sure you do too, that given the state of Pakistan’s perilous economic situation, it is imperative to discuss and brief the committee on several burning issues of public importance,” she stated in her letter.

Ms Rehman stated that instead of routine agenda, the government should brief the Committee about the conditions of the IMF, address the skyrocketing inflation, the perilous current account deficit, the widening trade of deficit and free-fall of the Pakistani rupee. “Given the nature of the multiple crises emerging in the economy, she would urge to defer routing agenda of the next meeting, change the date if you need to and replace it with these urgent issues of extreme public consternation,” she stated in a letter.

She stated that the official inflation rate has surged a troubling 11.55 per cent from 9.28 per cent which is the highest recorded increase in the past 21 months while the food inflation is at an abysmal 11.2 per cent compared to 10.8 per cent last month, and the sensitive Price index is up by 18 per cent.

She stated that to matter worse, the domestic oil prices have not changed since November 5, despite a decline in the international oil prices.