- Tareen says PML-N govt distorted facts to achieve certain objectives, relying on planted surveys in league with international organisations to better its tarnished image
- Says unemployment has increased above 150 per cent, purchasing power of people has shrunk
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday repudiated the country’s first-ever official report on Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) issued by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform, and termed it “baseless, concocted and contrary to the ground realities”.
“The figures shown in the report are a pack of lies designed to mislead the masses,” said senior PTI leader Jehangir Khan Tareen.
He regretted that the Planning Commission was being used under a well-conceived strategy for distorting the facts and figures to show the poverty indicators as positive.
Tareen said the government did not conduct a national census, but opted to carry out planted surveys in league with international organisations to better its tarnished image.
The PTI leader said everything was crystal clear when one matched the figures revealed by the planning commission minister with the numbers detailed in the Economic Survey of the Finance Ministry.
He also asserted that the people sitting in air-conditioned rooms would have never made such tall claims in the report if they had just gone through the economic survey which, according to him, totally bellied their claims of decline in poverty in the country.
Tareen questioned authenticity of the report, saying the government mocked huge population living in rural areas by conducting stage-managed surveys despite destroying the agriculture sector altogether.
He also questioned how a sensible person could believe in government’s claim about decline in poverty in rural areas at a time when the agriculture indicators showed a negative trend. “How is it possible for any person to believe in government’s figures despite a drastic decrease in exports without increase in the per capita income,” he went on to add.
Tareen said the irony of the situation was that the government was claiming to have eradicated poverty a lot, when unemployment had shoot up to above 150 per cent, besides shrinking the purchasing power of the masses.
The PTI leader said that on one hand, the government increased allocation of funds for the Benazir Income Support Programme, while on the other hand it was claiming decline in poverty. “It is nothing but just another attempt to mislead the masses, since the PML-N is known for distorting the facts,” he added.
According to Tareen, the poverty survey was carried out to achieve certain objectives; otherwise there was no need of a new survey when the data relating to education, health and environment was being gathered regularly. Tareen said that through this survey, the government in fact wanted to get funding from intentional donors.
