ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday the white paper released by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on economy was an attempt to mislead the masses as the PTI had inherited a stable economy in 2018.
At a press conference, he said the economy was facing challenges due to Russia-Ukraine war, adding that the country was making economic progress in the previous tenure of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). “The PTI’s tenure witnessed a spike in fiscal deficit and a downfall in remittances,” he added. The incumbent government, he said, collected over Rs3,000 billion in remittances in six months.
He said the prices of medicines rose up to 500pc and food prices also increased when the PTI was in power. “Inflation rate was 4.7 per cent in 2018 and it had risen to 11 per cent until the end of the PTI s tenure,” he added. Rebutting PTI’s claims, he said the white paper projected fiscal deficit at 7.6 per cent in 2018, however, it was 5.8 per cent in actual. “Economy was growing at 6.1 per cent in the PML-N’s tenure,” he claimed. The PTI, he said, left a circular debt of Rs2467 billion.
He maintained that the PTI claimed that prices of commodities would increase up to 200 per cent in the coming times, but it was false. “The PTI said 5.5 million jobs were created in its tenure but it was untrue too,” he added.
The PTI, he said, did nothing but criticising the government and it also did not earmark funds for security operations as the PML-N did for Zarb-e-Azb and other security operations.
Reiterating his earlier claims, he said the country would never default adding the PTI s concerns for default were uncalled for. “The PTI s policies helped drop the country’s economy from 24 to 47 in the ranking”, he added.
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