Opposition grills government over higher inflation in country

Abdullah Malik

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Economic Affairs Division Hammad Azhar Tuesday informed the National Assembly that the country had embarked on a journey to progress and development after the government stabilized the national economic due to its prudent strategy.

Taking part in the motion to discuss economic conditions of the country, he said, “The journey to development has taken start in the country, as now the economic condition is stabilized, current account deficit has decreased. We are expecting high growth in future”.

He said now the current account deficit had come down by 84 percent. The market driven currency was stable at Rs 155 to a dollar since June 2019. The minister said the country’s economic conditions were in bad conditions during the tenure of PML (N). He said the PML-N government had wasted about 20 billion dollars to artificially stabilize the rate of the dollar. He said due to effective policies of the government, the foreign exchange reserves were improving and current account deficit was shrinking.He said the government had also cleared short term liabilities worth Rs 400 billion, recalling that the country was heading to default when the PTI came into power.

The minister said the government was all set to enter the higher growth trajectory in next fiscal year.

He said the price of wheat had been stabilized in three provinces while efforts were being made to reduce the commodity price in Sindh.

He said fertilizer prices had already been decreased by Rs 300 to Rs 400 per bag. He said that negotiations were also underway to further decrease the price of fertilizer.

He said the price of electricity had increased due to expensive tariff agreement signed by the PML-N government. He said the gas companies which were in profit had been pushed into Rs 160 deficit by the PML-N government.

Hammad said the government took tough decisions to steer the country out of bad economic conditions and avoid the looming default. He said the government paid off over 10 billion dollars of debt in its first year in power, which stood the highest debt-servicing done by any government.

He said, the country’s foreign exchange reserve had increased substantially. He said the international rating agency Moody’s international had upgraded Pakistan’s raking.

The minister admitted that inflation had increased due to tough steps taken by the government keeping in view the position of the economy.

Initiating the debate, PML-N leader Khawaja Asif said the nation was confronting the crucial issues of inflation which must be addressed on emergency basis. He said the beneficiaries of wheat and sugar crises should be held accountable.  He said his party would not become the part of any conspiracy against the government but would support every step to strengthen the democracy in the country. Khawaja said “Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leadership has not fulfilled the promises made with  people of the country during their tenure of opposition.”

The PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari grills the government poor governance due to which the inflation hits the sky and the citizens of the country are depressed due to highest inflation but the government has no capability to tackle the situation.

Bilawal while discussing the tax collection failures criticized the Prime Minister and added that why people are not paying taxes, you should address the house and told people of Pakistan that you are corrupt or not capable that people are not paying taxes to government.

Bilawal shared the statistics of different food items and added that inflation hits highest numbers in this current government these are not my views but government own department quoting the recent Bureau of statistics report.

The house environment turned tense after the PPP chairman called Prime Minister a small man following the government benches responded to Bilawal in same way. The Speaker Asad Qaiser while responding the remarks of Bilawal added that you should respect the dignity of the Prime Minister designation on which Bilawal responded, Mr: Speaker this is not your responsibility to defend Prime Minister.