ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday issued a “white paper” titled “one-year dark period” of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government, detailing failure on many economic indicators, human rights violations, ‘political exploitation of the institutions’, ‘confrontation’ with judiciary, ‘enslaved foreign policy,’ deteriorated law and order situations etc.
In its 51-page “white paper”, the PTI whose government was ousted on April 9 last year through a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly, highlighted the incumbent government’s poor governance, rising inflation and other issues.
The “white paper” has been divided into six sections. Details of human rights violations by the incumbent government and statistics related to economic destruction and inflation have been made part of the document.
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In the first section about the economy, the paper mentioned that the PDM government through a “conspiracy” toppled an elected government with 6 percent growth during that year and ruined the country’s economy because ‘it lacks any economic policy.’ “They brought the country at the verge where there has been no other option but to beg the IMF [International Monetary Fund], and the price of which is only paying by the people of the country,” it reads.
It mentioned that the PTI inherited an almost defaulted economy in 2018 and due to the tireless efforts by then PM Imran Khan and his team, the growth was recoded at 6 percent for consecutive last two years of the PTI government.
The paper maintained that the PDM government has no roadmap to pull out from the prevailing economic crisis it has created due to its “incompetence”. “During the first 45 days, they even have no any clue whether they will continue to run the government or not, whether to approach the IMF or not. And when an order was received from the “top”, then they decided to approach the IMF,” the paper further reads.
In the white paper, the PTI alleged that the IMF was unhappy due to the policies of the PDM government, while its policies led to destruction of the industrial and export sector.
It further pointed out that the PDM government’s previous “people friendly budget” further angered the IMF and consequently the Fund put forward more tough demands. It further maintained that the tax target of Rs 7 trillion was insufficient which was later upgraded to Rs 7.4 trillion while the GDP target of 5 percent was unrealistically high.
It further mentioned that Miftah Ismail was removed and Ishaq Dar was brought for making experiments with the country’s economy which led to further deterioration of the economy. It also pointed out the high dollar rate against the PKR, the high petrol, gas and electricity prices, adding that due to the record decrease in exchange rate during the last year, Pakistan’s debt increased further to Rs13000 billion. It added that the inflation has reached to record 50 years.
The paper further maintained that the economy is facing a technical decline and the GDP is expected to decline 2 to 3 percent during the current year. It added that during the last nine months, there has been a decline of Rs 300 billion in tax collection that also led to stalled negotiation with the IMF. It added that the IMF program is stalled since 2022 and there is least possibility of any progress towards restoration of the program due to the ‘mistrust’.
Details of police and Rangers’ operation at PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s residence in Zaman Park, cases against the former prime minister and other supporters of the party and detentions have also been made part of the “white paper”.
Additionally, amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws and postponement of elections have also been made part of the “white paper”. The paper also mentioned that the cabinet members have reached to 83 members despite having not sufficient amount for meeting the expenses.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023