Declaring Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a threat to the national security, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri said on Sunday that the "days of the government were numbered". On the third of his anti-government sit-in, Qadri said the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was about to 'pack up' as he had already left the Prime Minister's House and wanted to spend his 'remaining few hours' at Jati Umrah - Sharifs' palatial residence in Lahore.
Qadri has presented a 10-point charter of demands a day ago, explained that the government has almost doubled the country's foreign debt by procuring $52 billion loan during the last one-and-half-year and its claim about the economic improvement was 'totally baseless'.
Speaking to the participants of his party's 'revolution march', Qadri challenged the government claim with respect to economic improvement and development in the country. He said that bleak economic performance of the government was also pointed out by the global competitiveness index (GCI) of the World Economic Forum with the rating in the GCI declined from 123 to 134. The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 assesses the competitiveness landscape of 148 economies of the world, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity.
Qadri held the present "corrupt system and rulers" responsible for the bad economic performance in all the sectors. He added that as per UNESCO, the country's performance in the education sector was ever worse. Pakistan, GCI has also pointed out the poor performance of the country as worse as compared to other regional countries.
How the government can claim that the country's economic performance has improved, he said, adding everyone knows that the ruling class wealth has gone up while the country's economy has gone down.
He said the government was making false claim of the economic betterment and development in the country when everything was on the path to decline. Tahirul Qadri said that in terms of economic performance Pakistan's rating has dropped from 125 to 138. "I want to explain to the people as to why his party is striving for 'revolution' and how important it is to get rid of from the current system based on corruption and bad governance for the betterment of the poor," he added.
He said Pakistan has sufficient resources to make progress in every field of life without taking any foreign aid. He said he was ready to debate with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on economic performance and would prove that his government claims were nothing more than 'plethora of lies'. Tahirul Qadri said that he would not leave the federal capital without bringing 'real democracy' in the country and urged the law- enforcement personnel not to accept the order of the present government as their time in the power was not more than few hours and open the roads leading from different areas to the federal capital for participants of the 'revolution march'. He demanded the 'national government' to implement the reforms agenda to bring about economic and social improvement in the country. He said that the first part of his economic reforms was to reduce by 50 per cent exorbitant life style of governments at federal and provincial levels which would give an annual saving of Rs7.65 billion.