ISLAMABAD: Holding the past government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz responsible for the crunch economic condition of the country, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said the PML-N government spent rs.23,00 billion more than its income, ARY News reported on Wednesday.
Addressing on the floor of the National Assembly, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said Pakistan was on the verge of default due to current account deficit and other economic indicators, when PTI government came into power. He termed the root cause of the problems being faced by the country, now a days, is the loan of rs.30000 billion.
He said country’s foreign exchange reserves saw a massive fall due to wrong economic policies of the PML-N. The adviser said the value of the dollar was maintained artificially, which also affected our exports.
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Admitting that Pakistan has never remained successful in achieving tax collection targets, but the PTI government is working to bring reforms in the country’s tax collection mechanism.
He said those who got several IMF programmes in their tenure of governments, are now criticizing the incumbent government. In order to save country from being default, it was necessary to get a bailout package from the fund.
“Saving country from being default was for national cause not personal.”
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He said the IMF bailout package helped Pakistan in restoration its trust in other financial institutions like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and others.
Their support also helped Islamabad to come out of default like situation, he said and added that the austerity drive of the government also helped Pakistan, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh added.
He maintained that the government curtailed its budget upto rs.40 billion and the Pakistan Army also extended its help to the newly elected government by not getting increase in the defence budget.
Mr. Shaikh said the country’s economy is improving now and the IMF has also endorsed that Pakistan has achieved all of its targets in its latest review report.
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He said international financial institutions like Moody’s, Bloomberg are appreciating our efforts for the revival of the economy, but opposition here, is only criticizing.
On the Governor State Bank Reza Baqir, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said Baqir left his job in the IMF to serve the country and added that jobs in IMF are not given on secretaries and the MNAs recommendations.
Criticism on Reza Baqir is not right, Shaikh continued.
Abdul Hafeez Shaikh the government is working to create ease for the people of the country and further uplift our exports.
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