LAHORE: The annual growth rate of Pakistan (4.3 per cent) is the lowest in the South East Asia while the federal finance minister is quoting “false” figures, says the Pakistan Awami Tehreek.

In a “white paper” issued here on Saturday, the PAT said it the was Ishaq Dar who was responsible for taking the price of the US dollar to Rs110 as the PML-N leaders had shifted millions of dollars abroad.

“The tax collection is poor as always and it is due to the criminal taxes imposed on the poor instead of bringing in the elite in the tax net,” it said.

The document says the government has nothing to do with the lowering of the budget deficit as that was met through the decrease in the oil prices world over.

It said the finance minister blamed the PPP government for taking huge loans but the reality was that it was the PML-N which had taken “massive loans” and the minister was himself responsible for the downfall of the economy.

“The government has taken huge loans and has broken the record of the previous ones,” it said.

It said the government did not even have funds to pay the pensions and grant subsidy on items at the Utility Stores. It said the mystery of Rs480 billion circular debt still remained unresolved and the alleged illegal $200 billion could not be brought back from the Swiss banks. The mismanagement in the Euro Bonds had also not been probed into as yet, it added.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2016