PML-N says PTI should 'hide in shame' rather than celebrate two years in office

Former finance minister Miftah Ismail said Wednesday that the federal government should "hide in shame" rather than celebrate its two years in office.

“The people below the poverty line have increased from 6 million to 8 million,” Ismail said while addressing a press conference.

The PML-N leader’s presser came a short while after members from the federal cabinet held a media briefing over their accomplishments after two years in office.

The national income was increasing when the PML-N left office and the PTI government brought it down as soon as it came to power, while this year the ruling party pushed it into negative, he said.

Ismail lamented how inflation has shot up to 12%. The former finance minister said that in his government’s tenure, the prices of essential commodities was far less.

Ismail slammed the government saying that whatever goes wrong in the country, the Centre blames it on the “mafias”. “Poor people are suffering [due to government’s policies].”

“The government has borrowed Rs11 trillion in two years, while PML-N procured a loan of Rs10 trillion in five years,” he noted.

Ismail challenged the government to conduct an inquiry into the past government's spending, saying that he was ready to do the same with the ruling party.

“This government’s biggest failure has been its inability to collect tax,” he said, adding that five chairpersons of the Federal Board of Revenue had been changed.

“By reducing the import of machines, the government has made the economy slow,” he said, adding that the circular debt was over Rs200 billion.

Ismail said that due to the incumbent government’s “failures”, the PML-N’s “success is visible".

Speaking on Kashmir, he inquired whose policy on the region was in the right direction: Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s or Shireen Mazari’s.

'No answers for shortcomings'

Meanwhile, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that PM Imran's repeated appearances on media won't rectify his government's failures in the last two years.

"Every sector has been destroyed in the last two years," the PML-N stalwart said, demanding to know why no answer had been provided for the government's shortcomings.

"In two years, despite taking [billions] in loans, the government [did not spend a dime]," she said, adding that the Centre did not explain why two million people had lost their employment.