TAXILA: PML-N Senator retired Lt Gen Abdul Qayyum here urged the PTI government to go for a ‘charter of economy’ to meet economic challenges and get the business community out of the uncertainty.

He was talking to newsmen after administering oath to the newly-elected traders’ body of Wah Cantonment on Sunday.

“The PTI has failed to resolve economic and social crises of the country due to its incompetency. There is a need for a charter to rid the country of the uncertainty and unrest which is resulting in rising inflation, price hike and unemployment,” he added.

He said a government which could not provide relief to the people in one-and-a-half years would not be able to do much.

The senator said the PTI government had destroyed the economy of the country and according to reports there was an increase of Rs1,000 billion in foreign debt just in the last few days. He said the government and its incompetent economic team had destroyed the economy.

“During PML-N’s last tenure, international financial institutions, including the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), had confirmed that Pakistan’s economy was growing at almost 6 per cent and the country was among emerging economies of the world,” he said.

“We handed over a Pakistan with its economy growing at 5.8pc and with the lowest inflation rate of 3pc to the incompetent PTI. This inept regime has shot up inflation to 14pc in one year and brought down the growth rate to 2.5pc.”

He said instead of plugging holes in the economy and giving relief to the poor, people are being burdened with high POL, electricity and gas tariffs.

The senator said Prime Minister Imran Khan had “handed over the country to the IMF on a platter.”

He said the country had not seen a day without a new disaster ever since the PTI came to power.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2019