NAROWAL: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal says the value of rupee is recovering fast against US dollar and the economy will improve in the next few months.

“The government’s first priority is to stabilise the country’s economy and all institutions are working on one platform to strengthen it,” he declared while talking to the media in tehsil Shakargarh on Sunday.

Mr Iqbal said the government would complete its term to fulfill the constitutional requirements.

“If we go for elections immediately, there will be uncertainty in the country for the next four months. Three months will be spent in the election and one month in the formation of the government.”

The federal minister said the process of new census had started and it would be completed by February 2023. He said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) needed four months to make new constituencies under the new census and the entire process would be completed by August 2023. He said all the political parties, especially of the Sindh province, were of the opinion that the upcoming elections should be held according to the new census. He declared that the federal government would complete its term to fulfill constitutional requirements.

Says govt to complete term as polls impossible before next August

Ahsan Iqbal claimed that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government had left the country on the brink of destruction. Just 10 days before the start of the coalition government, he said, the former ministry of finance had announced that the country did not have enough money for installments of development budgets, which meant that the country’s treasury was empty and there were fears that Pakistan would default like Sri Lanka within days or weeks.

“Today no one is saying that Pakistan is going to become Sri Lanka. The rupee which Imran Khan’s government had left on the slope in its last days is going to strengthen. In a few days, the rupee has restored its value against the dollar.”

Mr Iqbal said that during the next few months, Pakistan’s economy would become stronger with further improvement.

He said that all institutions, including the administrative machinery, the parliament, federal cabinet and the army, were playing their role equally in the country. He expressed hope that all would get Pakistan out of trouble and put the country back on the path of development with joint efforts.

Ahsan Iqbal asked whether the man who committed corruption of billions of rupees, betrayed the people’s trust, took funding from the enemies of the country, made deals on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor and Kashmir with external funding and spread chaos in the country was worthy of following. He said the MNAs and MPAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had taken oaths of allegiance to the Constitution of Pakistan but not of personal loyalty to Imran Khan.

Referring to Imran Khan, the minister declared that the man who disobeyed the Constitution and law of the country was not worthy to be supported.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2022