KARACHI: PPP issues fact-sheet to refute PM’s claim
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, June 1: Pakistan People’s Party on Thursday disputed claims by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of improvement in living conditions and the GDP growth, terming it ‘misleading’ and ‘jugglery of figures’. It said as around 70 per cent population of the country still lived below the poverty line.
At a joint press conference held at the Bilawal House, PPP’s Central Information Secretary Sherry Rehman and MNA Syed Naveed Qamar, also released the party’s ‘economic fact sheet’ on the government’s performance.
Referring to the prime minister’s May 30 claim that the per capita income in Pakistan stood at $846, they said it was nothing but a jugglery of figures because the dollar itself was weak by 30 per cent as compared to the Euro. They said that around 70 per cent of Pakistanis earned under $2 (or Rs120) a day.
Ms Sherry Rehman alleged that the government was also ‘dishonest’ to the people as it was refusing to use the international level of poverty measurement index, which was one dollar a day.
She pointed out that the government had announced a reduction in poverty by saying strangely that the old poverty figures were fudged, and that real poverty was down from 32 to 25 per cent. But she stressed that nobody had been told what the real figures were and what criterion it was using for determining poverty. “Independent economists all over Pakistan challenge this figure which is at 40 per cent and still rising,” she claimed.
The government remains busy congratulating itself for closing in on a 6 per cent growth rate, but there are too many imbalances in the current economy, according to her.
The PPP leaders alleged that the government continued to pamper the rich by exempting them from taxes, colluding with them to set up artificial prices for essential consumer goods and protecting them from legal and political accountability for corrupt practices. Once again, the poor salaried class is to be taxed and squeezed while non-progressive taxes will stay, hitting the poorest and exempting the rich, they said.
The State Bank has projected that during the current financial year, inflation rate will move between 7.7 and 8.3 per cent, which according to it, “remains at relatively high levels”. But official statistics of inflation measured by the CPI do not reflect the true picture of inflationary trend in prices of essential items. Despite the liberalisation of import regime for wheat, wheat flour, sugar, livestock and other essential items, record high prices still rage for these commodities. The high oil price is another factor that has made everything costlier. The increase in electricity rates and travel and transportation of goods is all due to high oil prices.
According to the PPP economic fact sheet, the statistics show that the average price of moong pulse reached Rs62.55 per kg in May 2006 as against Rs37.25 during the same month last year; mash pulse Rs73.13 per kg from Rs42.88; and sugar Rs37 per kg from Rs27.38.
The most glaring examples of sky-rocketing prices and unchecked financial corruption were those of oil and sugar, the PPP leaders claimed, pointing out that from Rs24.04 per litre in 1999, the price of petrol had touched an unprecedented Rs57.78 per litre in 2006.
They PPP leaders asked that how the ‘loss’ claimed by the government could be reconciled with the fact that on every litre of petrol, the government placed a petroleum development surcharge, sales tax, excise duty and an ‘inland freight equalisation margin’, which would all add up to over Rs24.
Second to fuel, sugar pricing has experienced the biggest percentage increase in Pakistan, at 110.5 per cent. From Rs19 per kg in 1999, the price of this kitchen item has touched an unprecedented height of Rs40 per kg in this year.
Despite empty pronouncements after a furore in the National Assembly, this essential item remains unavailable at the thin chain of utility stores.
The PPP leaders pointed out that in its second quarterly report for the year 2005-2006, the State Bank had criticised the federal government’s failure in controlling, what it called, ‘speculative hoarding and collusive price setting’ by the key industries like sugar, oil and cement.
The PPP leaders pointed out that while the government was spending billions of rupees on foreign junkets for the NAB, (Rs26 million in this year alone on NAB tours), corrupt practices by people in high places were endorsed and protected. The Public Accounts Committee exonerates three generals for negotiating a $98 billion deal on faulty locomotives, while NAB was told to shut down its investigation into the sugar and cement cartel monopolies.
They also challenged the regime’s privatisation policy and termed it non-transparent, citing the examples of the PTCL, KESC, Pakistan Steel, etc.
