ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif has said that record increase in the inflation “is a proof of the failure of the PTI government’s economic policies”.

In a statement issued from London and released by the party’s media wing here on Sunday, Mr Sharif said that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had “bottled the jinn of inflation”, but the PTI government “has not only let it out but has turned this jinn into a cannibalistic monster”.

Referring to the 12-year record inflation in the country, Mr Sharif said this tsunami of inflation had devoured the country’s economy and buried the poor people of Pakistan under its towering waves.

Expressing deep concern over rapidly exacerbating economic situation, the opposition leader said that rural population was the worst hit by these circumstances.

He said the Imran-led PTI government was implementing a policy which spelled death and destruction for the agrarian economy. He said the government had pushed an additional 18 per cent of the population below the poverty line. Mr Sharif said the “incompetent, incapable and corrupt” government’s Rs11,610 billion foreign loan serpent had swallowed the country’s economy and its people.

“The rulers are not only colluding to rob the national treasure but are stone-cold apathetic to the misery of the people of Pakistan,” he said.

He said the PTI did not understand or care about consequences of this dire situation on the most financially vulnerable sections of society.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2020