ISLAMABAD: Accusing the government of playing havoc with the economy and pursuing a policy of witch-hunt and rejecting what it described as the government’s plan to introduce a mini-budget, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Thursday asked the government to mend its ways or be ready to face the music.

“We do not want confrontation, but want to see political and economic stability in the country. But if the government continues to push us against the wall, we will definitely bounce back,” PPP leader Dr Nafeesa Shah said at a press conference. Former PPP MNA Palwasha Khan was also present on the occasion.

She said the opposition would stage a strong protest at an appropriate time if the government continued to paralyse the economy and the country through its unwise policies. She said the government had no direction, roadmap and solution to the problems the country was faced with.

She accused the government of using accountability as a smokescreen to hide its incompetence and poor governance. She said the Sindh government was being victimised and referred to the Supreme Court proceedings during which the chief justice of Pakistan questioned the reason for placing 172 individuals — including the Sindh chief minister — on the Exit Control List (ECL), noting that the joint investigation team (JIT) report was a tentative document that had yet to undergo judicial scrutiny.

Alleges that PTI administration has wrecked country’s economy

She said the CJP had also wondered how a province could be paralysed and asked the government to review its decision. Ms Shah was of the view that review meant a corrective action, but regretted that the government merely formed a review committee which, according to her, was contempt of the court order.

Rejecting the government’s plans to levy massive taxes to add insult to the injury of the people bearing the brunt of price hike and loadshedding of gas and electricity, she said the government had devalued the rupee twice in four months. She claimed that inflation would jump to double digit this year as a result of the government’s imprudent policies.

The PPP leader said that the PTI used to criticise previous governments for foreign loans, but it had obtained a commercial loan from China at a high interest rate.

She also blasted the government for a Rs300 billion cut in development expenditure and said reports suggested that the government was to pay $4bn in fines on account of lost international cases.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2019