Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jehangir Khan Tareen on Thursday termed the economic survey released by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar an “eyewash” and said the government has missed all the economic targets set for the fiscal year 2015-16.
“Pakistan’s textile export dropped for the second consecutive year while the production of cotton also declined by 40 per cent,” said Tareen, who has also served as the federal minister for industries and production during Musharraf’s regime, while talking to Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami in his Channel 24 programme DNA.
“Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has lied by claiming the growth rate to be around 4.5 per cent,” said the PTI leader as he put it around 3.75 per cent. He also held the view that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had failed to implement any rigorous mechanism to broaden the tax net.
Tareen, to a question, said his party would take to streets for agitation if its demands were not entertained by the parliamentary committee tasked with formulating the Terms of Reference (TORs) for a probe into Panama Leaks.
“We’ll try to persuade other opposition parties to join our agitation movement. But we can also go for a solo flight if they refuse to join us,” he added.
Tareen also observed that the government had committed economic murder of farmers as the current rulers had done nothing for their betterment.
During his talk show, renowned analyst Arif Nizami also observed that the finance minister had tried to present a rosy picture of the country’s economy by unveiling the economic survey. He said “the growth rate of India is increasing rapidly, while on the other hand our growth rate is decreasing”.