Ishaq Dar terms PTI’s white paper on economy ‘misleading’

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has termed the white paper issued by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on economy ‘misleading’, saying that its presentation of ‘selective and misrepresented economic indicators’ is an attempt to mislead citizens, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference along with other federal ministers in Islamabad, the finance minister – while terming the white paper on economy ‘misleading’ – said that the comparisons were factually incorrect and devoid of economic context.

Ishaq Dar noted that the economic situation since April last year was strongly influenced by PTI’s mismanagement of the economy during its tenure and its negative effects continue to impact the situation even now.

“The white paper ignores the impact of difficult international economic situation caused by commodity super cycle, Russia-Ukraine War and one of the biggest natural catastrophe 2022 floods in Pakistan,” he added.

Speaking of the growth, Ishaq Dar said that investment as a percent of GDP was higher during PML-N government as compared to PTI tenure. “The confidence of investors and their sentiments are much better in our government than PTI’s,” he added.

Regarding the price hike, he said inflation rate during the PML-N government was 8.6 percent to 2.9 percent while in PTI tenure, maximum inflation index reached 12.2 percent and minimum stood at 6.8 percent.

The finance minister further said that despite global economic meltdown and internal devastating flood situation, value added sectors were showing positive and satisfactory growth.

“The government initiative like Kisaan Package, industrial support package and exports facilitation measures helped revival of activities in industrial and agriculture sectors,” he added.

About relief measures, Ishaq Dar said budgetary allocation of BISP has been increased to 364 billion rupees and the government has planned to expand the scope of BISP and increase the number of beneficiaries up to 10 million.

He said the government has also included 500,000 more people from Balochistan in BISP, which would cover around 65 percent of the population of the province. He further said that the coalition government had to increase fuel prices to honor the commitments made by the PTI to IMF

The country was brought back from the brink of default through import management, resurrection of the IMF programme and reduction in current account deficit. He said friendly countries have announced their support which will help manage forex reserves in the country.

Responding to a question, the finance minister ruled out any threat of default and expressed confidence that the country will successfully steer out from the current economic situation.

A day earlier, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) issued a white paper on state of the economy, claiming that the incumbent government has destroyed the economy.

Addressing the seminar, Imran Khan asserted that strong institutions were imperative to curb corruption, saying that the country’s economy can be restored only with the implementation of law.

He regretted that two political families – Sharifs and Zardaris – had plundered the country for 30 years. The PTI Chairman said he feared the direction the country was heading, recalling that there was no example of what happened in the last eight months as more than 700,000 people left the country.