In a white paper on the condition of the economy released on Tuesday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan said that the Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition government had pushed Pakistan to the point where it was teetering on the verge of collapse.
While addressing a seminar from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore via video link, the former premier lamented that the government, which was showing great performance, was toppled and thieves were imposed on the country.
Mr Khan slammed the government once more, claiming that the incumbent government came to power by buying the people s conscience with money they [the government] plundered. He believed that the masses were against the coalition government.
Imran Khan claimed that PTI government generated 5.5 million jobs for unemployed people. Lashing out at his opponents, he reiterated the allegations against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and claimed that the current rulers of the country only came in power to get rid of their wrongdoings and corruption.
The white paper said inflation had increased by 45 per cent during the last eight months under the coalition government.
Skyrocketing inflation and flawed policies of the PDM government have made life miserable for the masses, it said.
The PTI s white paper on Tuesday highlighted a comparison of prices of food items in the last nine months of the PDM government with the previous nine months of the PTI government, revealing that the prices of food items had increased alarmingly in the last nine months.
The party presented the white paper in the presence of PTI leaders Hammad Azhar, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Shaukat Tareen and Asad Umar.
It was informed that price of flour increased by 86 per cent in the last nine months, while flour was available in every market. During the last nine months, the prices of milk increased by 28pc, rice by 60pc, meat by 16.4pc and egg by 115pc.
Similarly, the prices of tomatoes increased by 34pc, onion by 338pc, cooking oil by 15.2pc, fruits and vegetables by 50pc, tea leaves by 60pc, and sugar by 7.3pc.
The PTI further said that Pakistan has to pay back $127 billion dollars in external debt, of which the largest loan was from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and 37 per cent of Pakistan’s total GDP would be spent on servicing this debt.
The white paper said poverty, unemployment and inflation are bound to increase further whether the government accepts IMF’s tough conditionalities or push the country towards default by refusing to revive the global lender’s bailout package.
Addressing the ceremony, economist Ali Khizar said some worrying news was coming up for Pakistan. “We may witness food and electricity shortages in coming months.”
He explained the difficulties for Pakistan regarding debt servicing. “The government is unable to run the IMF program because of the political uncertainty”
KP finance minister Taimur Khan Jhagra, speaking on the occasion, said in just nine months, the PDM govt had withheld around Rs232 billion from their province alone.
He said the federal government was not fulfilling its promises regarding merger of FATA and that the KP was dealing security threats in former FATA on its own.
