LAHORE               -         The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday issued a white paper on the current state of the country’s economy, highlighting the alleged failures of the incumbent government in the last eight months and during the previous tenure of the PML-N before 2018. While explaining the details of the white paper at a seminar organised by the PTI here, the former federal finance minister Shaukat Tarin said that in 2018, the previous PML-N government had left a current account deficit of $19.2 billion for the new government and the SBP’s reserves stood at $9.04 billion with debt to GDP ratio of 64 percent. “Pakistan’s currency was overvalued by 23 percent, which did not increase the country’s exports from 2013 to 2018,” Tarin maintained. He claimed that the declining economy was managed by the PTI government as the GDP growth reached up to 6 percent despite coronavirus. The growth of the agriculture sector was 4.4 percent and large-scale manufacturing sector was over 11 percent and there were record exports of $32 billion. Similarly, he continued, record $ 31 billion remittances had been received; tax collection remained at Rs 6.15 trillion; industrial growth had reached up to 7.2 percent during the PTI era. Shaukhat Tarin claimed that the IMF refused to give money because of irresponsible behaviour of the present federal government. He apprehended that Pakistan’s growth would remain negative this year also as the exports had decreased from $3.1 billion per month to $2.2 billion, citing that in just last eight months, 1.5 million workers of the textile sector rendered jobless and the risk of default increased from five to 90 percent. Senior leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Asad Umar, Shaukat Tarin, Fawad Chaudhry, Hammad Azhar, Musrat Jamshed Cheema, Waleed Iqbal, Hasan Khawar, Hasnain Bahadur Dreshk, Farrukh Habib, Muzamil Aslam, former Finance Minister Dr Salman Shah and Dr Zarqa also addressed the participants. While addressing the launch of PTI’s white paper via video link from his residence in Lahore, PTI chief Imran Khan said that ‘tough decisions’ should be taken by the new government that comes with a mandate. “Whichever new government comes with people’s mandate should take tough decisions. This [PDM] government doesn’t have the moral authority to take tough decisions,” the PTI chief said. He lamented the country’s economic state highlighting the increase in inflation. “Prices of flour, electricity, petroleum products and food items have all increased. Today, the country’s industries are shutting down,” Khan said, highlighting that the nation is afraid of seeing the country’s direction. He claimed that around 750,000 Pakistanis had left the country in the last eight months. Khan also stressed the need for increasing the country’s exports. Repeating his demand for elections in the country, the former prime minister said: “The economy is linked to politics. It cannot improve without political stability.” He said that elections were the only solution to get the country out of the economic crisis. “The election is necessary to end instability. No matter what initiative is being taken, the election is the only solution,” the PTI chief said. Advising the ruling government in the Centre about its decisions regarding the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Imran Khan said that approaching the IMF raises the issue of autonomy. “When going to the IMF, one has to adhere to their orders. You cannot make your own decisions. Instead of going to the IMF, attention should be paid to exporters,” he added. In his address, PTI leader Asad Umar said that correct political decisions were inevitable for economic development “The idea of putting in place a government of technocrats is not the solution to problems being faced by the country. Pakistan was formed by voting under democracy and its development can also be done through democratic process. Instead of making decisions in closed rooms through backdoor deals, let the people make the decisions and when there is continuity in politics, the economy will improve,” he observed. PTI Leader Hammad Azhar said that eight months ago, Pakistan’s economy was praised in the reports of international organizations. The growth rate of the economy was six percent and the industry was growing at 10 percent. He said that the reason for the default was propagated by the imported government itself, which led to economic chaos in the country. The interbank dollar rate written on Ishaq Dar’s paper has nothing to do with reality. During the PTI era, Hammad Azhar said a unit of electricity was at Rs 16 and the circular credit had come down from Rs 400 billion to Rs 90 billion. During the era of PML-N, the power transmission capacity was 20,000 megawatts. Tehreek-e-Insaf increased the transmission capacity to 26,000 megawatts. Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Jamshed Iqbal Cheema said that Pakistan had been the cheapest country in the world in terms of commodity prices in 2021. A person in Pakistan used to spend an average of Rs 72,000 per year on food, today it is more than Rs 100,000. He mentioned that today, 45 percent tractor sales decreased and 41 percent less urea was used, thus reducing the overall agricultural production, citing that cotton and rice production decreased by 50 and 40 percent respectively. Former Finance Minister Dr Salman Shah said in his address that PDM parties ruled for 30 years out of the last 50 years. During this period, the economy of the country was built on imports. People cannot afford imported fuel in the energy sector. Power sector is a major obstacle in the development of Pakistan’s economy, he remarked. “Every month our foreign exchange reserves are decreasing by one billion dollars and our reserves will be depleted in five months. The 13 parties of the coalition government cannot make correct decisions. Whether they do something or not, they have to lose the elections. The economy will not improve until the IMF programme is restored,” he observed. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra said that during eight months, PDM government withheld KP’s Rs 232 billion, adding that most of this budget was used to automatically transfer to KP before the PDM government. This government is not giving a full share of the NFC Award to any of the provinces. Economist Ali Khizr said, “We do not have money for imports. In March or April, there may be severe shortages of food items and energy. We do not have foreign exchange for import for more than two weeks.” He was of the view that improvement in the economy is not possible without new elections.