ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday issued a white paper on the two-year performance of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government, describing it as part of an international conspiracy to render all the national institutions incompetent.

PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, who addressed a press conference along with senior party leaders, also made a clear announcement that his party was totally against Israel’s recognition as long as the Palestinians themselves did not agree on it and got their usurped rights back.

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former foreign minister Khawaja Asif, former finance minister Miftah Ismail, former minister for railways Khawaja Saad Rafiq, former commerce minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal and others accompanied the PML-N president, who is also leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.

The PML-N also launched the report titled, “Destruction of National Power: two-year performance of PTI government”, covering the alleged wrongdoings of the government and terming the PTI leaders “corrupt and incompetent”. He referred to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration as the “worst government in history, incompetent, and one that neither knows governance nor is concerned about the problems the public faces”.

Kashmir issue termed the biggest foreign policy failure in PML-N white paper

However, the opposition leader declined to answer the query whether the opposition parties were going to launch a movement against the PTI government and said: “We are a responsible opposition and we will continue to highlight the failures as well as the false propaganda of the government.”

Mr Shahbaz, however, added that he would soon get in touch with Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari regarding the multiparty conference.

About the party’s supremo return, the PML-N president said that his elder brother, Nawaz Sharif, would come back to Pakistan subject to medical experts’ permission.

Mr Shahbaz said the rising inflation had brought people to the brink of disaster in the past two years. He said sugar was exported and the gains from depreciation in the rupee were availed and even the farmers suffered losses while some corrupt elements made billions of rupees.

“For the first time in history, there was a shortage of wheat even before the end of harvest season. A member of the government asked on the floor of the House where the wheat had gone!”

The PML-N president, who was also former chief minister of Punjab, said unparalleled propaganda was spread against his party yet ‘no corruption has ever been found’. “We are not against impartial accountability, but the entire country watched the spectacle of pinning the opposition against the wall and despite being cornered, we extended our hand for cooperation, but they rejected it,” he added.

He said that historic development works were executed during the last PML-N government, citing the examples of Sukkur-Multan motorway, four LNG-based power projects, free of cost medicines in hospitals of Punjab and Hazara motorway. “What about those tall claims that he used to make from the container?” he said, adding, “I feel for Shibli Faraz that despite being such a respectable person he is speaking the language of someone else, filled with lies.”

‘Govt defending historic failures’

Former foreign minister Khwaja Asif said although the PTI government’s foreign policy was a complete failure, the debacle over India-held Kashmir and the massacre taking place in the Muslim-majority region was “the biggest failure of foreign policy”.

“We have fought wars with India over Kashmir but this government has betrayed the blood of Kashmiris,” he underlined.

Mr Asif also slammed the government for failing to maintain a balance between different sides of the Muslim world. “They angered both Malaysia and Saudi Arabia,” Mr Asif said, adding, “While Malaysia was openly supporting the Kashmir cause, we also need to understand that millions of Pakistanis were working in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.”

The statement by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi over Saudi Arabia did not meet the diplomatic norms, he said. “Pakistan has been left alone in the world. There is no response from Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over our call, whereas if they improved relations with Iran and Afghanistan the western border would have been secure,” he noted. Yet the government was “defending the historic failures”, he added.

The ex-minister alleged that the PTI government even spoiled relations with China over their stance on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Increase in power tariff

Ex-PM Abbasi spoke of how the incumbent government was “ignorant and forced to lie” to the nation and despite increasing electricity rates by more than 30 per cent for domestic consumers the circular debt had doubled.

“The diesel-based power plants owned by a federal minister was made operational making the electricity costlier,” he added.

Khurram Dastgir said that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was being used only for political point-scoring.

For the first time in country’s history, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth had been negative, Mr Ismail said, adding that this happened during the past two years of PTI government.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2020