Circular debt now stands at Rs1933b, an all-time high: Marriyum

PML-N Information Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb has said the PTI-led government has taken the circular debt to a new high and it now stands at Rs1933 billion.

Addressing a press conference in response to Imran Khan’s speech on Monday, Marriyum said after changing the world geography through his naive remarks and conjuring 12 seasons, Imran now needs to be schooled on the fact that the cost of electricity generation has nothing to do with the circular debt.

She said Imran should at least learn or ask someone before assuming to be an expert on every subject and blurting out outrageous and stupid revelations. Lectures on circular debt are rich coming from the person who has piled on history’s biggest circular debt on the country, she said.

She pointed out that in 2018 the total circular debt was Rs1200 billion and it has now jumped to Rs1933 billion. She said the power division, like Imran and NEPRA, is lying. These are the reasons there are demands and proposals to declare a power emergency in the country. According to NEPRA, Rs42.4 billion is adding to circular debt every month, she said.

Marriyum said that during one year of Imran Khan’s rule, Rs733 billion was added to circular debt at a record pace of Rs41.5 billion per month. All this, even after a 70 percent increase in electricity tariff, is a glaring proof of Imran’s corruption and incompetence, she said. She said this is the first time in the country’s history that people are looking towards the opposition for relief.

Marriyum said Imran should at least be ashamed, if not more, of inaugurating Nawaz Sharif’s projects and putting up his name plaques on schemes completed by Nawaz Sharif. During their tenure, Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif added 11,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid whereas Imran, who boasted of making 350 dams for people, ended up making people a “damn fool”, she said.

She said that Imran’s claim of investigating wheat and sugar crisis with culprits sitting next to him was laughable at the best. She said if Nawaz Sharif can muster up the courage to leave his wife on the deathbed and return to the country for accountability, why can’t Imran leave Bani Gala for the election commission’s office and present himself for accountability in the foreign funding case? But all these tactics won’t work as Imran’s 23 secret accounts have blown the lid off his corruption, she said.