KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has blamed the previous government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for providing zero relief to the common man during its 3.5-year tenure, ARY News reported on Friday.
PM Shehbaz Sharif, while addressing officials of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) in Karachi today, said that a beloved one had been supported by an institution but his government showed unseriousness during 3.5-year tenure. “This kind of support was never given to any government in the past.”
He told the economists to give their opinion to improve the current economic situation. PM Sharif said that he came to Karachi to know the real issues of the national economy instead of just political point-scoring.
“The value of the US dollar was Rs115 in August 2018 and when I took oath this year, the value of the dollar was Rs189. The US dollar rate was reduced up to Rs8 just after I took the oath and the stock market was improved.”
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He said that Pakistan is having a huge burden of loans. The previous government had acquired Rs22,000 billion in loans and overall 80% of loans were increased during the last 3.5 years.
He also blamed the PTI government for loadshedding, saying if the power outages were ended in the country then why it is started again. He also questioned the PTI government to provide expenditure details of Rs22,000 billion loans.
“I have imposed a ban on luxury items. We have not increased duty. It is a difficult phase and we have to sacrifice ourselves first.”
The premier said that the rupee will soon get stabilised. He said that businessmen are the great architects of Pakistan and if they wanted to change the fate of Pakistan then it will definitely happen, otherwise, the crisis situation will never change.
He said that he gave a target to the IT minister for increasing the IT exports up to $15 billion in two years.
PM Shehbaz Sharif asked the business community, Sindh government and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to formulate a comprehensive plan.
He said that China has shown interest in the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project. The development work on CPEC projects had been stopped during the PTI tenure.
PM Sharif said that Pakistan could not bear the burden of $20 billion for oil and gas and the country will have to shift to alternative energy sources including solar energy. He ordered Finance Minister Miftah Ismail to withdraw sales tax on solar energy.
