PML-N asks govt how and where $63bn was spent
www.dawn.com
By Our Reporter
ISLAMABAD, June 3: The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has sought details about how and where the hefty amount of $63 billion injected into Pakistan’s economy after the 9/11 has been spent.
Speaking at a press conference at the party’s central secretariat, PML-N information secretary and former Planning Commission deputy chairman Ahsan Iqbal challenged government’s claims of improvement in economic sphere and accused the Musharraf-led government of “squandering millions of rupees on publishing misleading advertisements in the media to make false claims of economic performance”.
He said the nation wanted to know where and how over $63 billion had been spent? “Before the 9/11, the average growth rate in the first three years of the Musharraf regime was only 2.5 per cent. The macroeconomic indicators of the country improved because of massive inflow of this money after the 9/11 which had nothing to do with the policies of the government. Any sitting government would have benefited from this change,” he claimed.
Mr Iqbal said that over $25 billion had been remitted by overseas Pakistanis because of insecurity abroad; over $15 billion had been purchased by State Bank due to weakening of the dollar; $10 billion had been given by the US in aid; over $10 billion came in loans and foreign assistance and more than $3 billion had been earned by privatising national strategic assets.
“The test of any government is how it utilises the funds. Has Pakistani infrastructure improved? Has quality of life for common man improved? Has delivery of education and health services through the public sector improved? Have real productive sectors become more robust and competitive? Have unemployment and inequality come down? Have Pakistani exports grown faster than imports? Unfortunately, the answer to all these questions is a ‘big negative’.
He said the Musharraf government had not introduced a single new economic reform over the last eight years. There are only two economic reforms introduced in Pakistan. The first reform was introduced in 1990-91 by the first Nawaz government which had liberalised and deregulated Pakistani economy. The second reform, he pointed out, was introduced in 19978-98 by the second Nawaz government which had professionalised public sector banks, granted an autonomy to the State Bank and reformed capital markets.
“Democratic governments in the late 90s worked under economic sanctions imposed by the US in 1989. The Musharraf regime has been in the office for eight years but has no single mega project to its credit,” Mr Iqbal said.
He pointed out that two PML-N governments which remained in the office for four and half years had initiated a number of mega projects, including motorways, new Karachi and Lahore airports, highways, modern digital telecommunication infrastructure, Ghazi Bharotha hydel power project, Chashma nuclear power project, Gwadar port, Makran coastal highway and Kohat tunnel.
He said that over the last eight years, the Musharraf government had failed to commission any new power generation projects, and as a result the country was facing severe power shortage.
He said that due to ‘elitist’ economic policies of the Musharraf regime, only defence societies had flourished in the country while the life in poor colonies became miserable. “The government is selling valuable national assets to meet the mounting trade gap caused by the liberal import policy. Now it is eying the PSO, PIA, and OGDCL.”
The PML-N leader sought a national committee to monitor transparency of the privatisation process.