'Imran’s golden words, charter of economy and eggs'

Pervaiz Ashraf says govt's answer to all criticism of opposition was rhetoric and comments on trivial issues

ISLAMABAD:

Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf threw down the gauntlet to the treasury benches to come up with something else than the rhetoric of blaming the previous governments for country’s dismal economic condition.

The challenge came as Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub, upon given the floor on Friday, blamed the previous governments for all the ills of the economy with even more forcefully; and said the opposition was shedding crocodile’s tears.

The National Assembly session, convened on requisition of the opposition parties, did not debate if the chicken came first or the egg. However, Planning Minister Asad Umar asked the opposition to make the treasury benches understand why PML-N’s vice president Maryam Nawaz said that eggs are being sold per kilogram instead of per dozen.

Ashraf repeated Prime Minister Imran Khan’s “golden words” spoken before coming into power and PML-N lawmaker Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh drew treasury benches’ attention toward long-forgotten “Charter of Economy” but the governments’ answer to all the criticism of the opposition parties was rhetoric and comments on trivial issues.

Ashraf reminded the House of Imran’s promises made to people before coming into power, saying that the "people were fooled” as the PTI did exactly the opposite of what it promised. He said that debt, inflation, poverty, unemployment has increased and merely criticising the previous governments would not serve the purpose anymore.

In a polite tone, Ashraf’s “have you ever heard this” speech comprised mostly of the statements made by PM Imran prior to 2018 elections and how he failed to deliver what he promised.

He reminded the House that PM Imran used to say that he would prefer to commit suicide than begging money from other countries; but he did that.

In his “Aap farmaya krtay thay [you used to say]” speech, Ashraf while imitating PM’s act of tearing up a utility bill during 2014 sit-in by simply tearing a paper asked NA Speaker Asad Qaiser if he and his constituents should continue to pay the bills in the face of continuous increase in the electricity tariff.

The speaker plainly replied: “You should keep paying the bills.” He also spoke about increasing circular debt, saying levelling allegations against opposition won’t take the government any forward.

Sheikh, on the other hand, attempted to shake government’s conscience by explaining how economy nose-dived in the first couple of years of the ruling party and how revival of the economy through chickens, eggs, milk, buffalos was a delusion.

Sheikh said that economy’s size was $320 billion in 2018 when PML-N left and it is now $290 billion after PTI’s two-and-a-half years in power.

Petroleum levy has increased from Rs135 billion to Rs275 billion in the six months’ comparison – July to December 2019 to July to December 2020 – Sheikh maintained, adding the Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif, PPP’s Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and ex-president Asif Ali Zardari had asked the government to go for a “charter of economy” but the government preferred Chor, Daku and corrupt debate over that.

Sheikh said India gives 75% loans to industrialists and 25% to small and medium enterprises; Bangladesh’s ratio is 82 to 18%, respectively, while Pakistan’s ratio is 93 to 7%. He asked the government to move from imposing sales tax to increasing income tax.

The mother of all evils of economy is budget deficit, he said, adding last year’s budget deficit was the highest in the history of the country: Rs3,500 billion, which is almost 8.5% of the country’s GDP. He predicted that it will cross Rs4,000 billion this year.

For Sheikh, ending trade with India was one of the reasons inflation increased in the country as Pakistan was importing the same things via Iran, Afghanistan and Dubai. He admitted that corruption existed in the past but, as opposed to PTI’s slogan of completely eradicating corruption, corruption has increased in the country. For him, not giving annual raises was one of the reasons as inflation mostly remained in double digits in the last two years.

Ayub, meanwhile, continued blaming the previous governments. He claimed that Imran government has ended corruption as people used to take briefcases to government offices but not anymore. He went on to say that the rival armies did not do what the previous governments did to Pakistan, accusing them of deliberately making things difficult for the PTI government.

To all the criticism, Asad Umar asked the opposition benches a single question: to explain since when eggs were being sold in kilos instead of dozens. Qaiser smilingly adjourned the session till Monday.