Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) on Friday issued a white paper to highlight the economic failures of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government. The paper categorically rejected International Monetary Fund’s “sponsored” report on Pakistan, terming it as ridiculous.

PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur along with other senior leaders including Dr SM Zameer, Basharat Jaspal and Sajid Mehmood Bhutta released the white paper on Friday. They said that nine years ago, the development rate of the country was 7.5, which has now fallen to 4.7. They claimed that investments and exports of the country have dropped, agricultural targets have not being met, all motorways and heritage buildings have been pledged and huge foreign loans have been obtained on them. “Is this the standard of gauging the improvement in a country’s economy?” the PAT leaders questioned, alleging that the IMF report was sponsored by the rulers and all the facts showing improvement in the country’s economy were false and fabricated.

The PAT report stated that reduced fiscal space would reduce public investment and the resultant increase in government borrowing may overshadow private investment. “This will further reduce the growth outlook besides bringing a decline in exports,” the white paper added.

The PAT leaders said that the agriculture sector showed poor performance in the last fiscal year, as Pakistan became a country with third highest number of children with stunted growth, which was shameful.

“The ratio of investment to GDP is 15.6 percent as compared to an average rate in South Asia of 34 percent between 2010 and 2015. This gap is due to continuous power failures and poor business regulatory environment (now ranked 144 of 190 countries),” the paper stated.

The PAT report deplored that the nuclear Pakistan was placed in the category of countries like Ethiopia when it came to education, human development and food. Out of 138 countries, Pakistan was placed at 122, which was nothing less than shameful for us. The present rulers had taken additional $13 billion as loans and now Pakistan has to pay over than $73 billion foreign debt, the PAT leaders lamented.

They said that the tax target of Rs 3,621 billion was unrealistic and the government had no plan of addressing the decline in collection of taxes. As for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor was concerned, the PAT report said that the parliament and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government were still unaware of the actual routes.

“Today our biggest issue is corruption and the prime minister has failed to answer the questions in relation to the Panama leaks and other financial scandals. The prime minister is the main stumbling block in the formation of laws to check corruption and accountability,” they reported asserted.

It further stated that benefits of the decline in oil prices did not reach the poor and the country continued to face a rise in prices of eatable and daily use items. The paper said Pakistan continued to follow the instruction laid down by IMF and the expenditure on the IMF officials was coming from the profit on the loans taken from IMF. The report said contrary to promises, prices of medicines and daily use items did not decline while the gas problem continues to haunt the people of the country, especially with the arrival of winter season.