ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) claimed that public debt is equivalent to 98 percent of our GDP, while circular debt has gone up from Rs1.1 trillion to Rs2.5 trillion during the last three-year tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
"Three years have passed and the promises that were meant to be fulfilled in 90 days are still not fulfilled. The so called tabdeeli (change) that we have seen in the past three years is unprecedented. Never in the history of Pakistan have we seen this kind of inflation, corruption, and unemployment. Unemployment rate has jumped from 6.2 percent to 15 percent, while poverty has increased more than 30 percent. Inflation in Pakistan is reaching new heights every day and Tabahi Sarkar is busy presenting dubious figures to mislead the nation," PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman said, in a statement, while discussing the PTI government's last three years, on Friday.
The PPP leader said it is a fact that the prime minister only attended seven out of a total of 79 sittings of the National Assembly this year.
"The prime minister needs to give up his ego and come to the Parliament," she said.
She said that three years of the PTI government have been a story of rampant corruption, serial mismanagement, and record-breaking corruption.
She added that the government needs to share its progress with the country as this is the same government, which had promised to eradicate corruption from the country and bring change in three months.
She said, "Be it sugar, BRT, wheat, LNG, petrol, medicines or the billion trees tsunami; the government has been involved in all kinds of corruption and scandals but unfortunately there has been no accountability as that is only reserved for the opposition in this Naya Pakistan."
The PPP leader said that prices of essential items are through the roof. She said that food inflation is in the double digits and staples such as wheat and sugar has become unaffordable. She said that just last month, prices of wheat and sugar rose by 15 percent and 23 percent respectively.
Then the added cost of petrol, electricity, gas and indirect taxes is making survival difficult for people, she said.
High petrol prices are further fuelling the inflation rate on a weekly basis as petrol prices have been increased from 95 rupees per litre to 120 rupees per litre in the past three years. How is this fair on the people? she questioned.
She said, "Due to poor planning, mismanagement, and delays in the import of LNG spot cargoes, the government has caused massive losses worth Rs10.6bn this fiscal year. This could have been avoided and billions could have been saved had they purchased LNG early in the year. Since 2018, electricity tariffs have been hiked by a whopping 40 percent and now Tabahi Sarkar will soon impose an across-the-board electricity tariff of Rs3.34/unit. Previously, a Rs1.95/unit tariff added a burden of billions on consumers."
"The ambiguity in government's Covid-19 policy has led to widespread public disregard for social distancing procedures which has only made the situation worse. Due to federal government's incompetence and serial mismanagement, Pakistan faced a major Covid-19 vaccine crisis, resulting in second dose delays but once again the government has shown a lack of decisiveness," she added.
She said, "We need national unity to pull through these testing times as it is unfortunate that this government is unwilling and unable to see the needs of this poor country."
The PPP leader said that the country cannot be run through ordinances, and if the government is struggling then it should resign and not let the people suffer. They must take responsibility for their actions, concluded Senator Rehman.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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