Pakistan’s currency, economic and the system has been devastated, and prices increased by five-fold, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s supreme leader was addressing officials of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Addressing to businessmen Nawaz said, “It is our responsibility and duty to emancipate the people from price hike and poverty.”
“People want education, health facilities and development,” he said. “It is their right, and it is responsibility of the state to provide these facilities,” PML-N leader said.
Nawaz claimed that Pakistan has become 24th largest global economy between 2013 to 2017. “We kept the US dollar static at Rs 104 rate for four years. The dollar would have dropped to Rs40 to 50 if our policies and development process were not interrupted,” he claimed.
“Today we are desperate for one billion dollars, it is self-inflicted harm we committed to us,” he said. “These miserable conditions are consequence of our own decisions,” he lamented.
“The policy rate has soared to 22 percent, which was 6.25 during our tenure,” he said. “Who can do business at 22 percent rate,” he questioned.
“We have ourselves committed excesses with the Parliament and prime ministers,” Nawaz Sharif said. “See, who was handed over the country. The rupee, economy and all systems suffered devastation”.
“Those who were paying Rs 1,000 monthly electricity bill, now paying 15,000 rupees,” he said. “Prices of everything, have soared by five-fold,” he added. While pitching his party’s policies to businessmen, Nawaz Sharif shared that India was able to achieve economic success by adopting Pakistan’s policies.
Nawaz said that the PML-N was aware of the economic problems faced by the country. He also assured them that his party would keep on taking their advice as they had taken during their previous stints in government.
“The business community of Pakistan implemented our policies and India adopted our policies and achieved economic success,” said Nawaz who is leading his party’s campaign after returning to the country.
He added that when his government in 1998 conducted a nuclear test, the Islamic countries started seeing Pakistan as their protector. “Today, the situation has become such that we are reliant on [them for] $ 1 billion, we have hit this axe on our own feet and these bad situations have arisen because of our own decisions,” said Nawaz.
