Govt’s policies causing one failure after another, says Abbasi

KARACHI: Former prime minister and senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Thursday that the government was meeting only failures one after another on its policies as serious trust deficit showed both by the business community and the public due to its inconsistency and “U-turns” was deepening economic crisis every day.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, he said the recently-announced tax amnesty scheme by the government had failed to win the people’s trust and only a meagre amount was transferred to the exchequer in the name of taxes.

“So far only Rs480 million was received in the name of amnesty scheme which was launched amid so much media fanfare and huge claims,” he said and then referred to figures of his government which it had earned through the same scheme which was criticised by the then opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

“We had made the commitment with the people while announcing the amnesty scheme. It was our written policy when we had announced the scheme that amnesty was not the option to make any excuses, but it was only an effort to bring maximum number of people into the tax net. The facts speak for themselves. We brought Rs124 billion through our amnesty scheme. It was everyone’s success.”

Ex-PM says PTI govt’s inconsistency and ‘U-turns’ deepening economic crisis

Mr Abbasi said the PML-N leadership was concerned over recent economic crisis in the country and wondered about the fate of the country if the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) stayed to complete its term.

“With the downfall of the rupee, the loan burden on Pakistan has increased by Rs1,000 billion,” said the former prime minister. “This all [declining of rupee value] has been done deliberately and it was an intentional move to devalue the Pakistani rupee. The terms we have set with the IMF demands the same fate of our currency and it has started emerging within a few days. The situation would further worsen in the days to come.”

He said the development had always been the only way out to counter growing inflation all over the world. When the PML-N government, he said, took over the charge after the May 2013 elections it decided to enhance the pace of the development without going into details of other economic segments.

“Then you witnessed that we touched the growth rate at 5.8 per cent which automatically improved all other economic indicators,” he said.

“Foreign investment, security situation and growing trust of the business community automatically improved. The current government is hitting the country with a two-edge sword. It has brought down the growth rate to 3pc and exercised all options to cap inflation but in vain. The result is that the situation has become disastrous.”

Mr Abbasi pointed out several flaws in the amnesty scheme announced by the PTI government. The amnesty scheme announced by the PML-N government did not allow public office-bearers and their family members to turn their black money to white that had been done by the PTI government to benefit certain individuals, he said.