ISLAMABAD: Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Tuesday there was no challenge to the government on the political front, arguing that the politics of Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari had now come to an end.

“The previous governments had two issues — first, they were corrupt, second, their members smuggled looted money out of the country,” the minister said while addressing members of the business community here at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

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Mr Chaudhry, however, said that stabilising the country’s economy was the government’s main challenge. He said the economic team of the government was working hard to enable Pakistan to stand on its own feet instead of depending on foreign borrowings.

He said wrongdoings of the previous rulers that had led to the poor state of the economy had been exposed. “Look at what the Sindh government had been doing, they used smugglers at the sea, models, etc to take money out of the country,” he added.

He said the government would not only bring back former finance minister Ishaq Dar to the country, but also the money he had allegedly looted.

“Due to corruption and wrong policies of the previous governments the economy is now very weak,” he said.

He alleged that the previous rulers had spent Rs7 billion to artificially maintain the value of the US dollar at Rs100 and when that artificial support was taken off the dollar’s price moved up to Rs128.

The minister criticised the previous rulers, alleging that during their tenures they had just purchased properties in the United Kingdom, France and other countries.

Mr Chaudhry said when the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) took over the government the country needed $12 billion to avoid default, adding that with hectic efforts the government had saved the country from default.

He highlighted what he called achievements of the incumbent government. He said the main focus of the government was to streamline remittances, adding that from $10bn to $15bn could be increased in the foreign currency reserves through this channel.

He said that the government strategy was to promote exports, discourage imports, broaden tax net, curb money laundering and promote remittances through banking channels.

He claimed that because of the PTI government’s clean governance Pakistan’s international perception was improving. British Airways was returning to Pakistan, France had improved its travel advisory for Pakistan and Germany was also considering on the same lines, he added.

He also claimed that Pakistan’s relations with the European Union and the United States were improving.

He said efforts made by the present government had started to yield positive outcomes as filing of income tax returns had improved from around 1.1 million in 2017 to around 1.5 million in 2018.

ICCI president Ahmed Hassan Mughal said that the government should focus on highlighting Pakistan’s business and economic potential through media to attract local and foreign investment.

He said the government should take priority measures to create conducive environment for business activities that would help in early revival of the economy.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2018