ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Hammad Azhar on Tuesday said that amid the deteriorating economic situation, ‘the ‘imported regime’, which was imposed on the people’ had no roadmap to steer the country clear of the prevailing economic crises.
Speaking at a presser Azhar, who is also the PTI’s focal person for economic affairs, regretted that 40 days have passed since ‘the imported regime’ took the rein, but it is still clueless as to what could be done to make the country economically viable.
“They had only one solution to every problem: increase prices [and] it has further complicated the situation as the rulers have failed to take remedial measures to the issues,” he added.
He went on to say that the economic situation of the country is going from bad to worse with each passing day, leading towards a bankruptcy. “In these circumstances, there is no other solution except snap polls,” he maintained.
He said that the gravity of the situation could be judged by the fact that only in a month and a half, electricity rates went up by Rs7.5, gas by 45 per cent, and petrol and diesel were increased by Rs60 per litre.
“The power shortfall has reached 7,500MW and the government was lying that 27 power plants were out of order as the PTI government did not take fuel to hide their own failure which is incorrect,” he added.
He said that load-shedding is being done as the power plants are run on 25 per cent of the production and the PTI government had added 5,500MW to the system. He said that the PML-N in its previous government installed expensive power projects and people were paying a price in the shape of unscheduled and prolonged load shedding.
Azhar said that farmers do not even have electricity to run tube-wells and diesel is very expensive, if crop production is not good then the food problem may arise in Pakistan.
He further said that the rate of inflation could go from 13 per cent to 25-30 per cent, the growth rate was six per cent during the PTI era, fearing that in the current situation it might come down to two to three per cent.
He said that during the PTI era, 1.5 million jobs were created annually, adding that the World Bank in its report stated that Pakistan’s economy was better during corona.
Azhar alleged that Pakistan’s sovereignty was sold and national security was at stake and now the country’s economic and energy stability was also in danger. He said that the chief minister of Punjab was running on the dates of the High Court, claiming virtually there is no government in Punjab.
“If the ‘imported regime’ is sure of its popularity, it should not hesitate from holding early election because only through general elections the problems of the country can be solved,” he declared.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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