DNA
\nISLAMABAD
\nPakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Parliamentary Leader in Senate Senator Irfan \u2013ul-Siddiqui on Friday held the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government responsible for derailing the country\u2019s thriving economy and damaging national institutions due to bad governance.
\nIrfan Siddiqui who is also chairman of Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs said the nation was dragged into a crisis due to the personal enmity of one man, who toppled a functioning system only to bring in another figurehead of his choice.
\nHe said Pakistan\u2019s downfall began when an elected prime minister was ousted, not due to constitutional reasons, but to satisfy personal agendas. \u201cTo push a fast developing country into chaos only because someone wanted to remove one leader and bring another, is not democracy but revenge politics,\u201d he remarked.
\nHe stated that the PML-N government had raised the GDP growth rate from 2% in 2013 to 6.1% by 2018. During the same period, per capita income increased by $322, rising from $1,446 to $1,768. He added that food inflation was brought down to 3.8%, compared to 7.1% when the party assumed office. \u201cWhen we handed over the government, the economic indicators were stable,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, the PTI reversed all the gains we had achieved.\u201d
\nHe said that under PTI\u2019s rule, the stock market stagnated, and inflation soared. He criticized PTI for increasing the policy rate to 13% from 6.5 percent and for doubling the debt burden within four years.
\nHe said PTI changed five finance ministers in less than four years and failed to appoint a capable economic team. \u201cThey mocked Deputy Prime Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, yet couldn\u2019t find a replacement even after multiple experiments,\u201d he added. He said when a no-confidence motion was announced, PTI panicked and recklessly slashed fuel prices, causing confusion in the financial sector and damaging International Monitory Fund (IMF) trust.
\n\u201cThat move alone pushed Pakistan further into uncertainty,\u201d he said.He said PTI leaders even appealed to overseas Pakistanis not to send remittances, yet the Pakistani Diaspora continued to show loyalty and increased remittances to record highs. He questioned PTI\u2019s call to stop IMF from helping Pakistan. \u201cWhat kind of patriotism is this? Who tells the world to let their own country default?\u201d he asked.
\nHe said that PTI not only violated the Constitution but also abused the judiciary, targeted judges, and launched vendettas against political opponents. \u201cThey dragged sisters and daughters into jails but pretend to respect women\u2019s dignity,\u201d he said. He said unlike PTI\u2019s broken promises like turning the PM House into a university, the PML-N actually delivered projects visible on the ground.
\n\u201cWhere are the 500 colleges and universities PTI promised? Where is the economic revolution?\u201d he questioned. Saddiqui said the current government must reform and strengthen institutions, not cripple them. \u201cThese academic and literary bodies represent our national identity and must be preserved,\u201d he stressed.
\nQuoting a couplet by Qayyum Tajooree, Irfan Siddiqui concluded, \u201cWaqt karta hai parwarish barson, haadsa ek dum nahi hota\u201d, implying that the PTI\u2019s misgovernance did not begin or end in a day, but was a continuous process of erosion. Senator Irfan Siddiqui strongly condemned the Israeli aggression on Iran, saying it was not only a violation of international law but also an attack on the conscience of the global community.
\nIrfan Siddiqui said that Israel\u2019s deliberate attacks on Iranian military sites and the martyrdom of senior officials were highly deplorable and amounted to state terrorism. He said, \u201cThis is terrorism at its peak. When one person is targeted somewhere, the world labels it terrorism and puts a bounty on his head worth millions.
\nBut when a state openly conducts aggression and murders senior officials of another sovereign country, the world chooses to remain silent.\u201d He said if the world remained quiet on such acts, it would signify the dominance of rogue states and terrorist regimes. \u201cThis is no longer just a political issue; it is a matter of global morality and justice,\u201d he added
\nHe also praised Opposition Leader Shibli Faraz for delivering his remarks on the budget and current affairs in detail and said, \u201cWe listened to him with patience and tolerance, and I hope our views will be received the same way.\u201d
\nHe said, \u201cIn 2017, we had overcome load-shedding, inflation was down to 3\u20134%, and the stock market was at 55,000 points. We had bid farewell to the IMF.
\nBut due to a carefully designed project by certain powerful circles, the democratic process was derailed.\u201dSenator Siddiqui urged the nation to differentiate between real and fabricated narratives and called for a return to political maturity and economic stability through dialogue, patience, and democratic values.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DNA ISLAMABAD Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Parliamentary Leader in Senate Senator Irfan \u2013ul-Siddiqui on Friday held the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government responsible for derailing the country\u2019s thriving economy and damaging national institutions due to bad governance. Irfan Siddiqui who is also chairman of Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs said the nation was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-484090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n