Economy of Pakistan in a challenging situation: PM Shehbaz

Web Desk (LTN NEWS): PM Shehbaz Sharif gave a bad report on the country’s economy and said he was sad that friendly countries were starting to see Pakistan as a country that always needs money.

“Today, when we go to a friendly country or call them on the phone, they think we’ve come to beg for money,” PM Shehbaz said to a group of lawyers.

PM Shehbaz said that the economy of the country was already in a “challenging situation” before the floods, and that the floods had made it even more “complicated.”

He said that when he took office in April, Pakistan was on the verge of “economic default,” but that the hard work of the coalition government had saved the country from default and somewhat controlled the economic instability.

Read PM Shehbaz visits to Sohbatpur in Balochistan

When PM Shehbaz said that inflation was “at its peak,” he blamed the previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government for this. He said that the previous government had broken its agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which forced the current government to agree to tough terms. He also said that the IMF had threatened to pull out of the program if the agreed-upon conditions were not met.

PM Shehbaz said that even smaller economies were doing better than Pakistan. “We’ve been walking around with a begging bowl for the past 75 years,” he said.

He told the lawyers that there were countries in the area whose GDP growth was lower than Pakistan’s, but that they were far ahead in terms of exports.

“Where is Pakistan now, 75 years later? This is a really tough question… PM Shehbaz said, “We are always going around in circles.” He also said that they were in a “now or never” situation. He said that the country had the ability to do something, but “no one wants to do it.”

PM Shehbaz warned that there could be a gas shortage this winter. He said that he had been having trouble getting gas before winter.

He said that the rains and floods had caused damage in the country that had never been seen before. He also said that such a disaster caused by the weather might not have happened anywhere else in the world.

Earlier, PM Shehbaz gave senior lawyers allotment letters for residential plots in the housing project and held a ballot for federal government employees to choose plots.