ISLAMABAD:

Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf challenged the treasury to bring up something other than rhetoric of blaming the previous government for the country’s grim economic conditions.

The challenge comes when Federal Energy Minister Omar Ayub, after giving the opportunity on Friday, more emphatically blames the previous government for all the economic ailments; and said the opposition shed crocodile tears.

The National Assembly, held at the request of the opposition parties, does not debate whether the chicken comes first or the egg. However, Planning Minister Asad Umar asked the opposition to make the treasurer understand why PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said eggs are sold per kilogram, not per dozen.

Ashraf repeated Prime Minister Imran Khan’s “golden words” spoken before coming to power and PML-N lawmaker Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh drew the bench of the treasury’s long-forgotten “Economic Charter,” but the government’s response to all criticism of the opposition party was rhetoric. and comments on trivial matters.

Ashraf reminded the House of Imran promises made to the people before coming to power, saying that “the people are being fooled” like what PTI did is the opposite of what was promised. He said debt, inflation, poverty, unemployment had risen and just criticizing the previous government would not serve that purpose anymore.

In a polite tone, Ashraf’s “have you heard this” speech consists largely of statements made by PM Imran before the 2018 election and how he failed to deliver on what he promised.

He reminded the DPR that PM Imran had said that he would rather commit suicide than ask for money from other countries; but he did that.

In “Aap farmaya krtay thay [you used to say]In his speech, Ashraf mimicked the PM’s actions of tearing up electricity bills during the 2014 sit-in by simply tearing up a paper asking NA Chair Asad Qaiser whether he and his constituents should continue to pay bills in the face of continuous electricity tariff increases. .

The speaker clearly replied: “You have to keep paying the bills.” He also spoke of increasing circular debt, saying accusations of leveling the opposition would not bring the government forward.

The sheikh, on the other hand, tried to shake the conscience of the government by explaining how the economy was in freefall in the first few years of the ruling party and how the economic revival through chickens, eggs, milk, buffalo was delusional.

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

Oil levies have increased from Rs135 billion to Rs275 billion in a six-month ratio – July to December 2019 to July to December 2020 – according to Sheikh, adding Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and former president Asif Ali Zardari have called on the government to vote ” economic charter “but the government prefers Chor, Daku and corrupt debate about it.

Sheikh said India provides 75% of loans to industrialists and 25% to small and medium enterprises; The ratio of Bangladesh is 82 to 18% respectively Pakistan the ratio is 93 to 7%. He asked the government to shift from imposing sales tax to raising income tax.

The mother of all economic crimes is the budget deficit, he said, adding last year’s budget deficit was the highest in the country’s history: Rs3,500 billion, which is nearly 8.5% of the country’s GDP. He estimates it will pass Rs4,000 billion this year.

For the Shaykh, ending trade with India is one of the reasons inflation has risen in the country Pakistan importing the same through Iran, Afghanistan and Dubai. He acknowledged that corruption did exist in the past, but contrary to the slogan of total eradication of PTI corruption, corruption has increased in the country. According to him, the absence of an annual increase was one of the reasons because inflation in the last two years was mostly still in double digits.

Job, meanwhile, continued to blame the previous government. He claims that the Imran government has eradicated corruption because people used to carry suitcases to government offices, but not anymore. He went on to say that the rival army did not do what the previous government did Pakistan, accusing them of deliberately making things difficult for the PTI government.

Against all the criticism, Asad Umar posed one question to the opposition bench: explaining since when eggs were sold in kilograms, not tens. Qaiser smilingly postponed the session until Monday.