RAWALPINDI , June 9, 2023: Seasoned politician Sheikh Rashid on Friday described the latest edition of Pakistan Economic Survey as the worst in the country’s history, saying the government had failed to achieve any of the economic targets.
Rashid – who is the Awami Muslim League (AML) chief – in a series of tweets noted a downward trend in agriculture, industry, exports, remittances and investment besides a negative growth and shrinking foreign reserves. The government was unable to negotiate successfully with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he added.
The finance minister [Ishaq Dar] wasn’t able to determine the actors behind the dollar saga as they ruling alliance had no plan except getting their cases quashed and making the people’s lives miserable, Rashid remarked.
He mentioned that the prices of bread, rice, wheat, electricity and oil had doubled. “Only the poor were previously complaining [about the state of affairs], now the upper middle and middle classes are also weeping,” Rashid remarked while claiming that the wheat and oil prices had halved around the world but doubled in Pakistan.
While claiming that the PML-N has dreams and desires, he remarked that the Bagh by-election – where PPP candidate Zia Qamar defeated PML-N’s Mushtaq Minhas – result should be treated as a trailer.
He also opined that the fissures had surfaced in the PDM and that the PPP and the PML-N would soon be on the opposite sides.
Rashid predicted that the future would be clear by June 20 and added that even the real decision-makers had not been able to decide how political stability would be materialised in the country.