PTI wants Dar to resign over dismal performance

Blames PDM govt for bringing economy to a standstill

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday said that they expected Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to hand over his resignation and apologise to the nation for unleashing a record-high 38% inflation on the citizens, crippling the economy with 0% growth and taking the country on the brink of default with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reserves falling below $4 billion.

In response to Dar’s news conference, a PTI spokesperson said in a statement that the Economic Survey FY2023 “paints a truly dismal picture of the economy”.

Under the PDM government, economic activity has collapsed to a standstill with 0% growth in the current year (0.3% to be exact), compared to two years of nearly 6% growth under the PTI government, the PTI spokesperson said in a statement.

“The epic failure of the PDM government has led to a ‘never-seen-before’ crisis with eight million workers becoming unemployed in FY2023, the unemployment rate rising to 10%, and causing nearly 18 million households to fall below the poverty line,” the statement read.

It stated that to hide his “colossal failures”, Dar likes to throw around random numbers and desperately spin fairy tales, as the finance minister cannot even differentiate between nominal GDP and GDP calculated on a purchasing power parity basis.

“But no one is buying his mumbo jumbo. The IMF has refused to do business with the PDM government, the global markets have shut their doors to Pakistan and even his own party men are openly questioning the stories being spun by Dar,” it added.

“The epic failure of his ‘Dar peg’ policy has showcased again why we believe he is unfit for this job, with a complete lack of basic understanding of markets and economic policy. This policy has brought the economy to the brink of a default, with SBP reserves now standing at only $3.9bn, not even enough to finance one month of imports. They were $10.5 billion at the time of the VONC,” the spokesperson said.

The statement went on to say that the national accounts committee once again reaffirmed the strong economic performance under the PTI government, as the GDP growth numbers for the last two years of the PTI government have been adjusted higher with the final growth for FY2021 estimated at 5.8% (from 5.7% earlier) and for FY2022 GDP growth has been revised to 6.1% (from 5.97% earlier).

“This reaffirms the fact that the economy was experiencing the highest levels of growth in the last 17 years and lays to rest all lies peddled by the PDM government about the PTI government’s economic performance. PTI is the only government since 2007 which achieved 2 consecutive years of average 6% growth,” it added.

It was said that if the PTI government had been allowed to complete its five-year term, it would have delivered on its promise to create 10 million new jobs for the youth. “It was this success which led to the PDM government using all means necessary to overthrow Imran Khan’s government and bulldoze all progress made in the one year,” it added.

“Despite the financial wizardry of FM Dar, he still cannot hide the epic failures of his government. The path of destruction which has led to the 0% growth, from 6.1%, has been plotted through regressive tax measures, inexplicable import restrictions, and the crowding out of the private sector in the credit markets. Deliberate sabotage of the IMF programme under FM Dar has led to a complete loss of confidence with neither development partners nor friendly countries willing to do business with Pakistan,” the spokesperson concluded.