Finance Minister terms PTI’s White Paper ‘misleading, devoid of context’
ISLAMABAD: The economic managers of the country on Wednesday termed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) white paper on state of economy as “selective, misrepresented and devoid of economic context”.
“The PTI presentation [white paper] was selective, misrepresented and economic indicators were misleading,” Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar said while addressing a press conference along with cabinet members.
He was flanked by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir Khan, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb and State Minister for Finance and Revenue Ayesha Ghaus Pasha.
The finance minister said the comparison made in the white paper were incorrect and devoid of economic context. He said the economic situation since April 2022 was strongly influenced by the legacy that the new government borrowed from the previous regime, hence what did the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) led government receive that should be denominator for comparison.
However, he said, this context was missing from the PTI presentation while it had also ignored international economic situation, the commodities super-cycle, Russia-Ukraine war impacts and catastrophic floods in the country. He said that these realities should have been kept in mind for making fair analysis.
He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had predicted that one-third of the globe would be in serious recessional problem in year 2023 and Pakistan was no exception. He said the fund had projected the growth at 2.7 per cent of GDP. It is pertinent to mention here that PTI in its white paper on Tuesday had painted bleak picture of economy.
