KARACHI: While warning that the country could face a severe energy crisis in the approaching winter season, senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and former finance minister Miftah Ismail on Wednesday claimed that some 70 million people across the country had gone below the poverty line due to failed economic policies of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government and ‘anti-poor’ measures from the authorities.

Rejecting fresh increase in petroleum prices and electricity traffic, he expressed the fear that that it would badly impact the monthly budget of every Pakistani family and that and the situation would go further worst next month.

He described the government decision to increase petroleum product prices and electricity tariff as a “brutal move” and said that the PTI administration had increased the rates due to the raise in the country’s circular debt.

“Since May 2021, our rupee has depreciated 12 per cent,” he said while addressing a press conference at the Muslim League House. “It’s a disastrous situation. The country is now facing circular debt of Rs2,500 billion. The people who know economics and are aware of the national business affairs are shocked and surprised that how this government is running the country. It has made the national economic affairs a joke.”

He said that the business managers of the PTI government brought the country to a situation where it had no other choice but to face the crisis while supplying the most expensive energy resources to the people who were already under immense pressure of food inflation.

When the PML-N came to power, he said, the electricity wastage was recorded at 21pc and it was reduced to 18pc and now the current government had again raised it to 19pc.

The electricity wastage is costing the national exchequer Rs15bn losses on average, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2021