Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal Friday has impliedly asked Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Asif Ghafoor, to refrain from making statements with regard to country's economic situation. The statement of the interior minister, which he made in Washington, was released by his spokesman here to the media in which he stated that "irresponsible statements can tarnish the international image of Pakistan."
The response of the interior minister seems to have been directed at an interview the military's spokesman gave to a private TV channel a day earlier, in which he had said: "If the economy is not bad, it is not doing so well either."
Iqbal further stated, "Today the economy of Pakistan is doing better as compared to 2013." He said the country's imports have come under pressure due to the energy projects and supply of electricity for investment in industrial sector. However, this pressure is bearable, he added.
Iqbal said that Pakistan's current development budget was its biggest in the history of the country's history. "Revenue generation has witnessed a double increase because of the improvement in the tax collection system," he added.
He said that the government allocated more funds and resources for security operations. "We do not need to seek loans from the IMF," he added.