ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday big decisions are required to be taken to deal with the current economic crisis, and fiscal discipline has to be imposed.
Addressing a “Bacha Khan Wali Khan & 21 Century” conference, he said that till 2013 discretionary funds were Rs 43 billion but first thing was done by him to abolish discretionary funds after taking the charge of finance minister in 2013 to bring about fiscal discipline. He said that everyone has to decide if this country is to put on the right path along with democracy, fiscal discipline has to be imposed.
However, he came hard on the previous government and stated that last five years were worst in terms of fiscal indiscipline and the present government is paying the price of it. The Minister said that total debt of the country was at Rs 30 trillion in 2018, which was increased to Rs 55 trillion in the last five years.
Dar challenges financial figures presented by IK
He said that last five years were worst in terms of fiscal indiscipline and the present government is paying the price of it. He emphasized that in order to achieve self-respect there is need to put the country in the right path of fiscal discipline, along with democracy.
Fiscal discipline has to be implemented, he said adding that external debt of the country has reached to $110 billion and all the political parties have work to make the financially self-reliant. The Minister said that 18th Constitutional Amendments was a gift.
Dar praised Bacha Khan’s ideology of non-violence and stated that Bacha Khan was very perturbed over Afghanistan situation and had advised Noor Muhammad Tarakai to initiate dialogue with all the groups of Afghans instead of unleashing violence. He also said that his emphasis to use locally produced goods instead of imported one was the solution to the prevailing economic situation of the country.
He said that the terrorism is the biggest challenge for the country and security forces sacrificed their lives and no one can forget Army Public School (APS) Peshawar tragedy which led to devise a national action plan to deal with the menace. He said that the non-implementation of NAP pushed the country from black to grey list. He said that once again terrorism is resurfacing, he said that the after the APS tragedy Zarb-e-Azab was initiated and the then government finance it from the country’s own resources by providing Rs 100 billion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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