ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Focal Person on Economic Affairs Muzamil Aslam threw down the gauntlet to Ishaq Dar of public debate on the Country’s economic performance of the PTI government and the imported regime.Â
In his reaction to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2022-23, Muzamil Aslam said that Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal and their economic team posed in picture with the Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif as if it was the best year in the history of Pakistan in term of economic performance.
However, he revealed that the economic survey clearly showed this was the darkest year in the economic history of Pakistan as the incumbent government itself admitted its incompetence in the survey.
Muzamil Aslam said that abysmal economic performance could be judged from the fact that Pakistan’s GDP growth rate was dwindled to 0.3 percent this year from 6 percent last year during the PTI government.
The PTI’s focal person on economic affairs stated that if Ishaq Dar considered 6% growth rate as wrong, then he should have to fix it, who was just remembering 2013 and 2018 years instead of talking about current economic situation of the Country.
Pakistan has dropped seven places in the Human Development Index (HDI), ranking 161 out of 192 countries worldwide. Compared to Pakistan, India has dropped one spot to 132 in the HDI. According to the report, life expectancy at birth in Pakistan stood at 66.1 years, expected…
— Muzzammil Aslam (@MuzzammilAslam3) June 9, 2023
The focal person went on to say that only those statistics, which were relatively good, were revealed and those that were bad were kept hidden.
Muzamil stated that there was no talk of bankruptcy of the Country during PTI’s 3.5 years of rule while after PDM seized the power through conspiracy, every week there was talk of bankruptcy.
Muzamil Aslam said that Ishaq Dar should at least tell the nation as how he saved the country from bankruptcy, as foreign exchange reserves were only US$ 4 billion, adding that he backed out of the IMF conditions after accepting them.
Therefore, the PTI leader said that how can he claimed that they saved the Country from bankruptcy, adding that the statistics showed that imported government took a whooping Rs 15,000 billion in one year while PTI took a loan of Rs 18,500 billion in 3.5 years.
Reserves likely on June 30th. Best case $4.5bn; worst case $1.5bn. Both cases we are in liquidity trap pic.twitter.com/Oy5HRq9Rd4
— Muzzammil Aslam (@MuzzammilAslam3) June 9, 2023
Muzamil Aslam said that the current government broke the 76-year-old inflation record, which soared to 38%, witnessing a three-fold increase than the PTI government despite 22 percent decrease in prices of food items in the world market.
World witnessing massive reduction in commodity prices, while Pakistan just touched the historic inflation 38%, highest in 76 years. pic.twitter.com/6KdX4tCuVu
— Muzzammil Aslam (@MuzzammilAslam3) June 9, 2023
The focal person on economic affairs went on to say that instead of his government’s performance, Ahsan Iqbal talked about vision 2035 in the form of 5E, adding that he was the only minister in the world who sat in his room and made a vision with three people.
Muzamil Aslam recalled that Ahsan Iqbal was used to talk about taking exports to US$ 100 billion in the vision of 2025 but exports dwindled from US$ 25 billion to US$ 20 billion in one year.
The PTI leader stated that according to independent economists, the growth rate was negative 3 percent.
The focal person asked that how they said diesel sales decreased by 25% and transport increased by 4.5%, adding that probably they never saw the Pakistani economy as deeply as the PTI economic team did.
Muzamil Aslam challenged that they were still adamant about their economics’ indicators; they should accept his challenge for open public debate.
