ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) — Former finance minister Miftah Ismail has criticized the government’s economic policies, claiming that debt has increased sharply in recent years and that current measures have failed to provide relief to ordinary citizens.
Addressing a budget seminar organized by the Awam Pakistan Party in Islamabad, Ismail said the government’s claim of achieving economic stability was partially correct, but added that stability had not translated into reductions in poverty, unemployment, or improvements in investment.
He claimed that during the four years of the Shehbaz Sharif government, annual debt growth averaged around Rs8.5 trillion, compared with approximately Rs700 billion annually during the first 75 years of the country’s history.
Ismail said the Pakistani rupee had stabilized, but the hardships faced by common citizens had not eased. He added that exports, wheat production, and cotton output had not shown improvement, claiming cotton production had fallen from 14 million bales to around 6 million bales.
The former finance minister criticized the government’s handling of agricultural issues, saying wheat farmers faced difficulties due to unmet commitments, expensive fertilizers, and rising production costs. He warned that declining wheat output could lead to higher flour prices in the future.
He further said that while the government was increasing taxes, citizens were not receiving meaningful relief. He noted that the tax collection target for the next year had been raised to more than Rs15 trillion.
Ismail said people pay taxes but still struggle to receive basic services such as electricity, water, and security. He questioned why electricity remained expensive despite the country having more generation capacity than its current requirements.
Calling for reforms, he said the government should focus on resolving existing energy sector issues rather than pursuing additional costly power projects. He argued that the budget should have prioritized inflation, unemployment, poverty reduction, and declining exports.
Ismail said the current budget did not provide solutions to Pakistan’s economic challenges, adding that the country’s economy had been falling behind regional economies for two decades.
He called for a fairer taxation system that reduces pressure on ordinary citizens and urged the government to cut expenditures before imposing additional taxes, particularly on salaried groups already facing inflationary pressures.