KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari Thursday said the nation will likely face difficult circumstances if Prime Minister Imran Khan keeps taking loans at current pace.
The PPP chairman said in his statement that running the country’s economy on loans will create problems for future generations as well as next governments.
Bilawal Bhutto said Pakistan’s policy making has been handed over to the countries which have given us loans. A $10 billion loan, with an increase of 35 percent, has been taken only this year, he said.
Pakistan’s foreign loans have surpassed $ 95 billion after Imran Khan assumed power, the PPP chairman said while adding that the PM, despite knowing his ineligibility, is destroying the economy to satisfy his ego.
Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill Thursday said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari should take a look at his party’s history of taking loans from the International Monetary Fund before lecturing others.
Reacting to Bilawal Bhutto’s statement while calling him ‘parchi chairman’, he said Bilawal is perplexed because Pakistan’s economy is going in right direction.
Shahbaz Gill said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government returned loan and interest worth Rs 35,000 billion in two and a half years. He said Pakistan would not have been in such a state had the former governments worked to strengthen the economy.
It is pertinent here to mention that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said earlier today that the nation will likely face difficult circumstances if Prime Minister Imran Khan keeps taking loans at current pace.
The PPP chairman said that running the country’s economy on loans will create problems for future generations as well as next governments.
Bilawal Bhutto said Pakistan’s policy making has been handed over to the countries which have given us loans. $ 10 billion loan, with an increase of 35 percent, has been taken only this year, he said.
Pakistan’s foreign loans have surpassed $ 95 billion after Imran Khan assumed power, the PPP chairman said while adding that the PM, despite knowing his ineligibility, is destroying the economy to satisfy his ego.
Moreover, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib Thursday said the government was spending around Rs three trillion annually to pay off the debts borrowed by the previous regimes of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party.
In a statement, he said the present government’s borrowing till March 2021 constituted 21 per cent of the total loans.
The minister said the external debt stood at $46 billion in 2008, and then reached $60.09 billion in 2013. The foreign loans surged by 32 per cent during the PPP’s tenure .
Likewise, the foreign loans witnessed a 56 per cent increase during the PML-N’s stint (2013-2018) as the external debt reached to $95.24 billion in 2018.
He said the primary balance of present government would be surplus, if the interest being paid on the loans subtracted.
“It means, according to the budget, the government’s revenue is higher than its expenditures,” he added.
Farrukh said the Pakistan Stock Exchange had set a new record of trading volume of one and a half billion shares the other day, adding the strong confidence of investors in the government’s policies would pave the way for achieving more economic dividends.
He said all such achievements were made due to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s prudent policies and decisions.
The minister chided PPP Chairman Bilawal over alleged off-shore assets of his father, and asked him to show some courage and bring back billion of dollars plundered wealth of Asif Ali Zardari to the country from Switzerland and other countries.
He asked Bilawal as to why he could not digest the Gross Domestic Product’s projected growth of four percent.
On closure of the last fiscal year, the minister said, India’s economic growth stood at 8 per cent due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the United Kingdom’s at – 9.9. At the same time, Bangladesh stood at 1.6 percent while Turkey at 1.8 percent.
Had the government not grappled with the prevailing challenges, the country’s GDP growth would have been higher than four per cent, he added.
