October 02, 2006	Monday	Ramazan 8, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: Information secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Ahsan Iqbal on Sunday criticised President Gen Pervez Musharraf for presenting Pakistan as a failed state in his book In the Line of Fire.

According to Gen Musharraf, in Pakistan’s 59-year history, baring his period, nothing has been right. All rulers were corrupt and incompetent. There was no system in the country and every leader and party indulged in plunder and self-promotion. Every institution was dysfunctional and crippled, the PML-N leader said in a statement.

He said in order to portray himself as the saviour of Pakistan, Gen Musharraf had presented a dismal picture of the country’s history. According to him, between 1988 and 1999 over a trillion rupees were squandered in the name of development but nothing came on ground except Lahore-Islamabad Motorway.

Mr Iqbal said this was historically incorrect and an attempt to mislead the nation. He said the two tenures of Nawaz Sharif government lasted not over four and a half years but the impact of his development policies stood much taller than seven years of Musharraf government. During Nawaz’s first government, he said, foundations were laid for modernising the economy of Pakistan through introduction of the first generation of economic reforms aimed at deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation of economy. These reforms were adopted later by Manmohan Singh, who was then finance minister of India.

During his second government, he said, second generation of reforms were introduced which included granting autonomy to the State Bank, professionalising the public sector banks through induction of leading Pakistani bankers from international banks, capital market and agriculture sector reforms. This was admitted by Gen Musharraf’s governor State Bank Dr Ishrat Hussain in his speeches.

Mr Iqbal said today’s macro-economic indicators owed to 9/11 scenario after which the US removed Pressler Amendment sanctions and Pakistan became recipient of over $55 billion inflows largely due to remittances of overseas Pakistanis. He said every major economic project in the country carried Nawaz Sharif’s seal.

“Lahore-Islamabad Motorway, Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway, Pindi Bhattian-Faisalabad Motorway, new Karachi and Lahore airports, Gwadar Port, Makran Coastal Highway, dualisation of National Highway, Indus Highway, new digital telecommunication infrastructure, introduction of cellular phone before India, Ghazi Barotha Hydel Project, Chashma nuclear power plant, Kohat tunnel, Northern Areas highways, farm to market roads, schools and health units, distribution of land to landless haris, free kidney treatment of poor and destitute, national transport scheme and abolition of octroi system are some of the projects which are still imprinted on people’s memories,” he said.

Gen Musharraf, he said, had tried to fill people’s stomach with his pep talk and hollow announcements. The opening ceremony of the much talked about Bhasha dam was a farce as its technical studies will not be ready before 2009. Despite the claims made by Gen Musharraf in his book about doubling development budget, he said, the people experienced worst loadshedding and got polluted water in all cities which showed the deterioration in the infrastructure.