The Pakistan Awami Tehreek has castigated a government-sponsored report on reducing the poverty level, claiming that its facts and figures are "false and misleading". A party fact-finding report, released to the media by Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, South Punjab party President Fayyaz Warraich and Information Secretary Noor Ullah Sadique on Wednesday, too questioned the claim of the poverty level in the rural areas standing at 55 percent.
The report also blamed the over-16-hour power outage on the government's incompetence, saying, "In a country where power-cuts exceed 16 hours, how can poverty, unemployment and suicides be curtailed?" It then pointed to declining production in the agriculture and industrial sectors in the past three years. "Because of power and gas outages each year, over one million workers lose their jobs. Mega projects are restricted to only a few big cities. The government has failed to cash in on the decline in the oil prices in international market and the industrial production is witnessing a decline. Revenue targets have not been met and nor has the inflation come under control.
The only support the economy has been given is by taking loans from foreign agencies and domestic banks," the party report said. It also claimed that in the next fiscal year the federal government would pay up to Rs 1,360 billion, "the highest amount in the history of the country", as mark-up on loans obtained in the previous years. The report then went on, "Because of the Panama leaks and the terrorism committed in the Model Town incident, the government has been constantly under immense pressure and its popularity graph is falling sharply and the masses desire an instant change of government."