Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal on Monday accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of misleading the nation on foreign debt. Speaking at a news conference, he said that Prime Minister Khan in his first speech to the nation mentioned that the current foreign debt is $95 billion which he said is incorrect. "In fact, the Prime Minister misled the nation on the amount of foreign debt as he had also included the private loans to the total amount," he said.
He maintained that the former PML-N government had never crossed the average debt to GDP in taking loans. "If our government borrowed loans, we also brought investment and initiated mega development projects," he added. He also alleged that it was the PTI which has to be held responsible for huge burden of repayment of the loans, adding after taking the powers in 2013, the PML-N government had to face sit-in protests of the PTI which resulted in hindrance in bringing investment and uplift projects.
About the concerns of some quarters on repayment of Chinese loans, he said that Pakistan is not repaying the Chinese loans immediately, adding that the soft loans are "gift" from the China for a period of 20 years for infrastructure development in the country.
He also criticised Prime Minister Khan's speech allegedly for not giving an assurance that the mega projects initiated by the PML-N government would be completed on priority. He said that Khan's speech lacked two main sectors to mention including the energy and terrorism, adding, "It is an indication of the non-seriousness and the fact that Imran Khan is non-experienced for holding the prime minister's slot."
He said that the PTI government has no vision as to how it would deal with the issue of energy and power generation in the future. Similarly, he added that it has also no clue to deal with the issue of terrorism and extremism, as FATF has already put the country on its grey list and the new government needs to show seriousness to deal with the issue of terrorism and extremism.
He also alleged that Imran Khan in his first address to the nation outlined issues already present in manifestos of all political parties. "It indicates that the new government is quite inexperienced and immature and it is obvious that the PTI government will have to go through kindergarten," he further maintained.
He maintained that Imran Khan in his address spoke about all the powers that have already been devolved to the chief ministers of the provinces. "The Prime Minister does not know how much authority he has and what has been delegated to the provinces. In fact, he has never remained on any public position even in the local government system," he added.
He said that it was shocking that the Prime Minister completely ignored to mention China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in his speech and his vision to complete the mega projects under the CPEC. He further alleged that Prime Minister Khan in his address has outlined his government's agenda of political victimisation of the opponents. In his first cabinet meeting, Ahsan said, Imran Khan's cabinet decided to put the names of Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz on Exit Control List (ECL) and also to bring Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz and former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to face accountability.
"How one could refer it as across the board accountability when it is unable to make the former dictator General Musharraf accountable," he asked. "In fact, it is political victimisation of the opponents on the pretext of accountability," he added.
To a question, he said that efforts would be made to bring a joint and consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential candidate of the opposition parties. He said that PPP has indicated that it has not yet finalised Aitzaz Ahsan as the candidate for the presidential elections, adding that talks with the PPP are underway on the matter.