Shahbaz Sharif raises question over government's economic figures

Last updated on: 03 June,2021 10:17 pm

Biggest problem of the country today is circular debt that has almost doubled in past three years.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Leader of Opposition in National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has not confirmed the economic statistics presented by the government which left a big question mark.

Addressing the pre-budget seminar on Thursday, he said that the fake government knows the art of manipulation. He said the mini budget presented by the government in the past is also in front of everyone and inflation has broken the backs of the people in three years.

The PML-N president said that the unemployment in the country has increased immensely and the progress on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project (CPEC) has slowed down.

He said the country’s growth rate has turned negative, adding that the three-year performance of the government is in front of everyone. “We would have appreciated, if the government had done a good job.”

Speaking on the occasion, former prime minister and PML-N senior vice president Shah Khaqan Abbasi asked why the circular debt has doubled when every minister claimed in the assembly that the circular debt has been controlled. “The masses would suffer when incompetent governments would be formed with stolen elections,” he added.

Abbasi went on to say that in 2018, the price of per unit electricity was Rs 11.72 that has now reached Rs 19 per unit. He said the government s electricity revenue is more than Rs 300 billion from expenditure but per unit price of electricity had risen 62 percent in past three years.

He said that the biggest problem of the country today is circular debt which has to be paid one day or the other, adding that the PML-N government had left circular debt of Rs 1,150 billion which has gone up to Rs 2,150 billion today.