Bilawal chides government over false claims on economy 

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has castigated the government for showing indifference to the hardships a common man is facing while the government is making false claims regarding improvement in the economic situation, reported 24NewsdHD TV Channel.

PPP Chairman Bilawal was talking to a presser in Karachi on Friday. He said despite the teetering condition of the economy, Prime Minister Imran Khan was trying to paint a rosy picture of it. 

He said the PM seemed to be far from the ground reality. He said the premier claimed that a difficult time had passed now whereas the fact was: every new day was bringing more hardships for a common man than the previous day.

Bilawal said the PPP was waiting for the budget 2021/22 which was coming next week. 

He wondered on one hand the government was claiming that GDP was showing an upward trend while on the other, it’s mind-blowing that the government was begging ‘alms’ from the IMF and the Arab countries. 

He said that if the economy was improving, then ‘we expect that government will announce a 100% increase in salaries; 150% rise in pensions, reduction in inflation and unemployment, creation of 10 million jobs and construction of 5 million houses’.

He said the government would be exposed in the upcoming budget. 

Bilawal said that Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin himself admitted that their deal with the IMF was wrong. He asked why the government in the first place went to the IIMF. He said the government was oblivious of the true picture of the economy.

The PPP chairman said that Prime Minister Imran was harping on the tune of corruption and mafia.

 He said now the PM vowed to bring back the looted money in his next term, what happened to his promise to retrieve it in 90 days. He said it showed his double standard terming it political engineering. 

Habib rejects Bilawal claim 

State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib while talking to media on Friday said that all economic indicators were pointing to the growth in the economy. 

He said Pakistan’s economy despite the pandemic of Covid-19 sailed extremely well. We faced Covid-19 and locust attack and the blackmailing of the Pakistan Democratic Movement could not derail our progress, he added.

The minister said the sale of vehicles rose by 54%, tax collection reached Rs4,170 billion and there was an increase of 11% in federal excise.

He said the current deficit that the previous government left for the nascent PTI government was 19.2%. He said if the government didn’t have to pay the IMF debt instalments, then the government’s revenues would have been greater than its expenditures. 

He said the government put emphasis to improve the agriculture sector. He said farmers got an extra Rs1,100billion. He claimed that every sector was showing signs of progress.

Criticizing PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, the minister question whether his father did not go to the IMF.  He said PPP raised the foreign debts by 32% and brought the dollar-rupee parity from Rs62 to Rs95 per dollar.