PML-N approached IMF thrice, PPP did it seven times: Omar Ayub

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan on Wednesday heavily criticised the past two governments for what he termed “ruining country’s economy”, ARY News reported.

Responding to Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif’s speech in National Assembly, the minister maintained that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have no right to criticise the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for the current economic crisis as both acquired International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs several times in the past resulting in ruining the country’s economy.

“I am forced to put all these facts before the house lest PML-N takes credit for presenting the ideology of Pakistan,” quipped Omar Ayub adding that the past two governments took Rs240000billion in loans brought the country’s current account deficit to $20billion.

He added that due to the heavy loans acquired by past governments, currently, the present government has to pay Rs3000billion as interest only.

“To come out of this mess, this government has reduced its expenditure by Rs50billion and God willing, it is this government which will bring the country out of this crisis under the visionary leadership of Imran Khan,” said Omar Ayub.

The minister also accused the PML-N government for what he termed artificially controlling the value of rupee against US dollar and taking cosmetic measures to “resolve the energy crisis”.

“Their finance minister Miftah Ismail confessed artificially controlling the rupee value,” said Omar Ayub.

He added that the power sector needs complete overhauling and the PTI government is working day in and day out to resolve it once and for all.

“When I took over the energy ministry in September, I encountered a mess, and let me say it, I saw a PML-N recommendation to NEPRA suggesting a Rs3.84 per unit increase in power tariff,” said Omar Ayub.

Earlier, Opposition Leader in NA Shehbaz Sharif heavily criticised the PTI government for what he termed bringing an anti-poor and IMF-dictated budget which may lead the “poor to commit suicide”.

He was of the view that PTI government’s policies can cause irreparable damage to the country’s economy and make life miserable for country’s middle and lower class families.