LAHORE: Expressing concern over the state of country's economy under the present regime, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Ahsan Iqbal said on Saturday that Imran Ahmed Niazi-led government had trapped the country in debt.

"The PML-N government had taken loans worth 10 billion in its five-year tenure but the current government had taken massive loans just in two years and pushed the country in debt trap," he said while addressing a news conference here on Saturday.

Answering a question, the PML-N leader said that India was not happy over the speech of former PM Nawaz Sharif rather India is pleased that Pakistan's economy had weaken and isolated on foreign front, and even failed to get support of Islamic countries on Kashmir issue. "The country's economy which was 5.8 percent in the PML-N tenure has now reached 0.4 percent which has pleased India," he said.

Slamming the PTI government for targeting the opposition, Ahsan termed the speech delivered by Nawaz Sharif at the recently-held APC as a reflection of the party workers' feelings and approach. He claimed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was trying to arrest the party president, Shehbaz Sharif, in an attempt to rig the November 15 elections for Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly. "We would not allow Imran Ahmed Niazi to repeat the 2018 playbook," he said.

The PTI government had also planned to rig the local government elections in Punjab and every attempt was being made to achieve this goal. He said the PTI won the July 25, 2018, general elections by crippling the RTS system through magic. The recent passage of different legislations by the Parliament was also a product of magic, he remarked.

He further alleged that an attempt was being made to turn Pakistan into a fascist state by using the NAB; the country has been experiencing another form of jurisprudence - NAB jurisprudence - under which every law is being defined and fitted into the NAB's narrative. "The PML-N was facing political terrorism," he said.

How the PPP and the PTI returned to power in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the PML-N was ousted in Punjab when it had transformed the province during the previous tenure, he wondered. Even after that, Usman Buzdar-led government was imposed in the province by using magic when the PML-N clearly had more members, he claimed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020