The massive austerity measures announced by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif are being termed a need of the hour to overcome the prevailing economic crisis and would surely help reduce the economic burden on the national exchequer. The decision of members of the Federal Cabinet not to draw salaries, allowances and other perks and privileges was largely hailed by the people from a cross-section of the society in Khyber Pakthunkhwa and declared it a major step forward in the right direction to give support to an under-stressed economy.
Ikhtair Wali Khan, PML-N KP spokesman and former Member Provincial Assembly told APP on Thursday that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet members have set a great example for others to follow and expressed the hope that all provinces would replicate it in letter and spirit for the best interest of Pakistan.
He claimed that Imran Khan’s government had left behind economic landmines for the coalition government after seeing that his game was over. He said Imran Khan Govt has artificially kept prices of the petroleum products and dollars low as compared to international market rate, resulting in an extraordinary burden on the country’s economy and increasing price-hike and inflation.
“The Imran Govt did not know how to run the economy and changed several finance ministers. When the PTI Govt ruined the national economy and ran out of money, the incompetent rulers of PTI escaped by dissolving the KP and Punjab assemblies,” he claimed. He further claimed that when Imran Khan realized that his government will not survive any longer, he badly damaged all important sectors including energy, water, agriculture and the economy so much that it will take years to recover. “It was clearly written in the contract Imran Khan made with the IMF in 2019 that the subsidy on petrol would be abolished.”
He said that the coalition government was left with no viable option but to renegotiate with the IMF for revival of the said agreement to save the country from an imminent bankruptcy and default. To overcome the massive inherited economic damages, he said the coalition government took bold decisions for revival of the national economy without taking their political outcome into consideration.
