E-Paper
Even friendly countries think we are beggars: Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif
Pakistan, which is currently witnessing a severe economic crisis and rising inflation, has been reeling under devastating floods which brought the entire nation to a standstill.
Prime Minister of the flood-hit Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday addressed the country’s devastating economic state and said that the ‘friendly countries had started looking at Pakistan as a nation that is always asking for money,’ while speaking at a lawyers’ convention.
“Today, when we go to any friendly country or make a phone call, they think that we have come to beg for money,” the prime minister was quoted as saying by Pakistani media outlet The Dawn. “Where does Pakistan stand today after 75 years? Even smaller economies had surpassed Pakistan and we have been wandering for the past 75 years carrying a begging bowl,” he added.
Sharif then shifted the blame for the skyrocketing inflation to the previous Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government. He alleged that Khan’s government violated the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), compelling the incumbent government to agree on tough conditions. “The IMF had even threatened withdrawal of its programme if the agreed conditions were not met,” he added.
“Pakistan was on the verge of economic default when we assumed power in April. The coalition government, through its hard work, has saved the country from default…and to some extent…controlled the economic instability,” he said, lauding his government’s work in bringing Pak back from the ‘doldrums’ it was put in by previous rulers.
Pakistan, which is currently witnessing a severe economic crisis and rising inflation, has been reeling under devastating floods which brought the entire nation to a standstill. A third of the country is submerged in water and one in every seven persons is badly affected by the floods.
