ISLAMABAD
Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal has said that serious efforts will be carried out to revive the economy, which has been destroyed by the last government.
Talking to the media persons on Friday, the planning minister said that the PTI government got Rs20,000 billion loans during its term. He regretted that the projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor were ignored.
He said that nine industrial zones are scheduled to be completed by 2025 but unfortunately, work on five of them has not even yet been initiated. He said according to the five years’ plan (2020-25), the government was to focus only industrial development under CPEC and it was expected that during that period some $40 billion foreign investment would be poured into the country’s SEZs.
“Imran Khan’s government has put irreversible damage to CPEC, which is the project of national interest,” he said, adding that the coalition government was committed to revive the mega project.
Iqbal claimed that the federal development budget was reduced from Rs1,000 billion to Rs500 billion that affected various sectors, including energy sector, Higher Education Commission, National Highway Authority and technology.
He said there is no truth in the last government’s claims of bumper wheat crop this year. The minister said, “The fact is that we are facing a shortage of two million tonnes of wheat.”
Iqbal said the previous government of PTI had played havoc with the country’s economy as the country’s debt and the inflation reached record high levels. Every family’s domestic budget, he said, had disturbed during that period.
He said despite the fact that Imran Khan was the most powerful prime minister, he could not manage the country on every front especially in economy and foreign diplomacy. “All institutions were supporting him, he had governments in three provinces but despite that he failed to deliver,” Ahsan Iqbal said.
He said the ML-1 railway project under CPEC could also not be initiated in four years which was a game changer project in Pakistan railway. The minister said in 2018, Pakistan did not import sugar, cotton, and wheat but rather the country used to produce these commodities in sufficient amounts to meet the domestic needs. But he said now the country is importing all these commodities. “This year, we have a wheat shortage of two million tons which would be imported to meet the domestic needs,” he added.
He asked Imran Khan to show a sense of responsibility and if wants early elections, then he would have to sit in the National Assembly’s electoral reforms committee to ensure that the process should be completed in time and also to ensure that the next elections should be held free, fair and transparent.
