Miftah thinks ongoing efforts to revamp economy not enough

Miftah thinks ongoing efforts to revamp economy not enough

Pakistan

18th amendment resulted in creation of four power hubs instead of one

KARACHI (Dunya News) – Former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said on Saturday it was hard to revamp the country’s economy as the present economic outlook was nothing but the result of mistakes committed in the last 75 years.

Addressing a ceremony, he said the way the economy was being stabilised, it would be hard to revamp it as it demanded more sacrifices. “Former FM [in PTI's tenure] Shaukat Tarin tabled the budget without following the IMF’s conditions while Ishaq Dar is running after striking a deal with the IMF even after spuriously standing tall against the global lender”, he added. Foreign loans aside, he said, we were entangled in the domestic debt now.

He said that the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution helped trickle down the power but it resulted in the creation of four power circles instead of one adding that it did not eventually let the money and authority flow down. “The federation spends up to 63pc of the money on provinces, Azad Kashmir, and anti-terrorism funds to the KP which leaves the federation no [substantial] share”, he added.