Pakistan Muslim League-Like-minded (PML-L) on Tuesday issued its fourth white paper on the incumbent government's performance, saying the PPP-led government had plunged the country into foreign debt trap of $61 billion. Speaking at a press conference at Karachi Press Club, Additional Secretary General PML-L, Nasir Mehmood Advocate said, "Every new born child owes about Rs 30,000 as foreign debt because of the government's heavy international borrowings."
He was flanked by the party's Senior Central Vice President Rana Saeed, Joint Secretary Sindh Obaidullah Laghari, Co-ordination Secretary Amjad Jatoi and others. He said the fourth white paper of his party titled as titled "devastation", was prepared by former Federal Commerce Minister, Hamayun Akhtar Khan, which is about the government's four-year performance.
He accused the government of collapsing the country's institutions and bringing trade and economy to stagnation. He said the governance of the incumbent government was the worst in the country's 65 years history. "The present government committed Rs 12 billion corruption during in tenure," he alleged.
He said the prices of essential commodities had soared 200 percent while inflation hit 70 percent high in the last four years, comparing to the period of his party's government with military chief, former President General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) from 2002 to 2007. He said the poverty had increased by over 40 percent, as people living beneath the poverty line were now over 74 million in the country. He said the government was not issuing poverty-related statistics for the last four years.
He said rupee had depreciated against dollar, as a dollar has amounted to Rs 91 against Rs 62 during his party's government, despite the greenback had declined world-wide. He said the GDP growth had declined to 3 percent from 7 percent in the Musharraf-led previous government.
He said during the previous government, the country's foreign exchange reserves had soared to $16 billion without any foreign loans and if the trend continued, the reserves could have swelled to $30 billion at present. But, he said the present government despite the IMF loan could hardly retain the size of national exchequer at 16 billion dollar. "If IMF's loan is extracted from the present $16 billion, the country's foreign exchange reserves stand at $9 billion," he added.
He said foreign direct investment in the previous government had reached $8.4 billion, which at present had fallen to $500 million. He said export in the past government had reached $20 billion, which in 2011, despite global cotton prices increase, could hardly touch 25 billion-dollar mark.
Nasir Mehmood said the country's industrial growth was surging by 12 percent a year during his party's government, whereas the present government's bad policies brought the rising trend to negative level while the local manufacturing units were compelled to relocate to other countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He said the present rulers could not achieve the tax collection targets.
He said the country had been producing 15,000 MW of electricity during his party's government whereas the present government failed to increase the power generation. He said, "it is irony that the consumers are receiving 140 percent higher bills for electricity with using less electricity."
He continued that the present government had increased the fuel prices by 147 percent, which was much higher than the increase in petroleum products' prices on global market. He said the government had increased the prices of wheat per maund by 100 percent but it also increased fertiliser prices by 270 percent and electricity tariffs for tube-wells by 311 percent to "deceive" the growers.
He said in 2011, the agriculture growth had remained 1.2 percent and despite Pakistan being an agrarian, the country had to import vegetables worth Rs 6 billion from India. He said the bad economy and stagnant industrial growth had triggered huge unemployment. He said the governments' spending on public healthcare and education had been negligible.
Nasir Mehmood said despite the parliament's resolutions, the country received 270 drone attacks while there had been only seven attacks during Pervez Musharraf's regime. He said in the last four years, the crime rate had gone up phenomenally.
He said in 2011 crimes rate surged to 6,73,750 reported cases from 5,26,916 reported cases in 2007. He said the poor were more compelled to commit suicides because of soaring prices and unemployment as 130 people lost their lives to desperation, every month.
He said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had been committing contempt of court and defied court's orders. He said proofs of Indian involvement in Balochistan unrest had been found but the government instead of lodging protest with the neighbouring country had bestowed an MNF status on it to do free trade. He said the government neither lodged protest with President Hamid Karzai for attacks initiated from his country, on Salala check post of Pakistan Army and in Abbotabad.
To a question, he said, the former Chief Minister Sindh, Dr Ghulam Arbab Rahim wanted to return to Pakistan but the present government would create security problems for him, due to which he postponed his comeback. He said Chief Minister Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, however, had offered him to land in Lahore and stay there but Arbab Rahim refused the offer saying, "I will return to my ancestral land- Sindh".