ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Miftah Ismail on Wednesday said that the government would give relief to the masses on petroleum products if their prices continued decreasing in the international market. He said that if the previous government stayed in power for six months, Pakistan would have gone bankrupt. The current account deficit increased because of the former government’s wrong policies and the agreement it had concluded with the IMF. The minister said the previous government misused the NAB laws for victimizing political opponents and achieving other ulterior motives. “We do believe in privatization but would not harm people and their businesses like the PTI government did. In fact, PTI had taken a lot of u-turns in this regard, however, we appreciate privatization of banks. If we will privatize organizations, we will first look at managerial and administrative aspects,” he added. Furthermore, the incumbent government, unlike the previous government, did not support giving all rights to the Governor State Bank, the minister said. Miftah said the government will hold former PM, ex-ministers and Bushra Bibi accountable for misuse of power, theft and corruption. He informed that the GDP ratio would increase due to the imposition of direct taxes, however, the taxes had been applied to the upper class and elites only, such as the super tax that was applied to people of the upper class only. The minister said if unjustified subsidies were given constantly, the country would default for sure. The government was already giving Rs 2000 per month subsidy to people having less than Rs 40,000 monthly income to help them fight inflation. The government had taken the tough decisions due to PTI incompetency coterie, and major hurdles in the country’s progress were removed with the passage of budget 2022-23 from the parliament, he added. Furthermore, the minister said, the government had controlled food prices to control inflation. “The PTI government imported sugar at Rs 48 per kg but we exported sugar at Rs 96. Such policies damaged our economy.” PTI government also failed on the foreign policy front as Imran Khan had issues with Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Turkiye, and China and he could not maintain healthy relations with other countries, Miftah said, adding that PTI also sabotaged the CPEC project which had the potential to revive our economy.