Observer Report
Islamabad
In his address on Wednesday to the World Economic Forum’s Country Strategy Dialogue on Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the country’s current account recorded a surplus after 17 years.
The CSD on Pakistan was held in recognition of the country’s positive economic trajectory and its commendable resilience amid the myriad challenges faced during the coronavirus outbreak.
The prime minister said that the country opened the construction sector, and because the work done there was in the open air, the virus did not spread.
The premier, talking about the Ehsaaas Programme, said that 15 million families were given cash handouts — and it really saved Pakistan from the worst effects of lockdowns.
“Because the people [cooperated] with us, they complied with our measures we came out of it better than any other country,” the premier said, adding: “We saved our economy and we save people from dying from the virus.” However, the premier said that he was “worried” as the second peak had hit Pakistan, and the people were not taking it seriously. “We don’t know how long will this wave last.” “In our country with high levels of poverty, we cannot afford to [impose] a lockdown where we [close] our businesses and factories,” he said, adding that the country had taken a policy decision to only prohibit public gatherings — which he termed “non-essential stuff”.
Speaking about the two “biggest” challenges that his government faced when they came into power, he said: “The fiscal deficit — the biggest in our country’s history — and the current account deficit that was also a challenge.”
The prime minister said that when his government came into power, for a year and a half, they brought down the deficits and introduced policies to boost the economy.
