ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) secretary-information Marriyum Aurangzeb, Friday, hit back at Prime Minister Imran Khan for claiming that his government achieved the highest GDP growth rate in the country’s history.
In a series of tweets, the PML-N spokesperson contradicted the prime minister’s claims with regard to the statistics of the country’s economy and alleged that the Imran-led PTI rule has set the country on a path of “economic damnation”.
She said “In 2018, Pakistan’s GDP growth was 6.1 percent. Imran Khan should mourn the inefficiency of his government for plummeting it into negative territory and now bringing it to 5.57, instead of celebrating it through the tweets,” she stated in reaction to Prime Minister Khan’s tweets.
She added: “Inflation, unemployment and poverty are killing people in the country, while he is “shamelessly” tweeting. There is a long list of harsh economic truths about his government that Imran should be tweeting instead.
He [PM] should have tweeted even after taking the highest loan of $50 billion in the history of the country. He should have tweeted about snatching jobs from six million people in three years. He should have tweeted about pushing 20 million Pakistanis below the poverty line. Imran should have tweeted the historical fiscal deficit reaching 4,400 billion and the inflation reaching 22 percent,” she maintained.
She questioned by saying as to why Imran Khan did not tweet about the electricity, gas, medicine and fuel price skyrocketing?
“Why did he not tweet about the highest trade deficit of the country reaching $45 billion? Why did Imran not tweet devaluation of rupee against the US dollar from Rs123 to Rs184 in three years of his rule? Why had he not disclosed the plight of farmers pushing for urea fertilizer in the country in his tweets? Why did he not tweet about robbing Rs500 billion from the nation in electricity and gas tariffs? And what about the 17 percent sales tax rate on baby milk and basic food items?” she further asked.
She maintained that the price of DAP fertilizer had shot up from Rs2,400 to Rs9,700 per bag in three and a half years of the “disastrous” PTI rule, while urea had increased from Rs1,200 to Rs2,800.
“After stealing Rs40 billion from federal and Rs1.5 billion from Covid-19 fund in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the only people Imran Khan should be congratulating today are his own “mafia” that he had benefited,” she maintained.
“The Imran-led “mafias” who made Rs550 billion in sugar, Rs1,200 billion in flour, Rs600 billion in medicine, and Rs75 billion in the BRT Peshawar are the only ones rejoicing this “imposed” government. Just because the income of Imran Khan and his mafia had increased, he [PM] thinks that the income of the whole nation has increased,” she added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022