ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram has likened the country’s economic growth figures to “Form 47” — a reference to alleged election manipulation — saying the government that promised to turn Pakistan into the Netherlands has extinguished people’s kitchen fires instead.
During a press conference in Islamabad alongside other party leaders, he claimed that 30 million people have fallen below the poverty line in the last three years. “They are showing this economic growth just like Form 47 — it’s fabricated,” he said.
Sheikh Waqas criticized the government’s policies as being “anti-farmer” and “anti-nation,” stating that during PTI’s tenure, the GDP growth was 6.5%, whereas it is now barely 1.5% in the third year of the current government. “People have been economically orphaned,” he added, pointing to a 13.5% decline in agriculture.
Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub, also spoke at the press conference, saying, “The finance minister is an honest man trapped among thugs.” He questioned the credibility of the reported 1.7% growth rate, calling it an illusion and the lowest since 1992.
He mocked government statistics, noting that even the number of donkeys has increased while all major crop outputs have declined. “They’re now counting livestock like cows and goats, as if anyone will go and verify.”
Omar Ayub highlighted that the value of income has drastically fallen: “Rs. 50,000 earned in March 2022 is now worth only Rs. 20,833.”
He claimed that poverty has surged to 44.7%, with 114 million people now below the poverty line, and warned that this year’s revenue shortfall could exceed Rs. 1 trillion.
PTI leader Mubeen Arif Jutt added, “Even in their own documents, they admit that both industry and agriculture have shown negative growth. So, what exactly is positive?
Read also: NEC approves Rs1,000 billion federal development budget
