Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Business Forum President Mirza Ishtiaq Baig has said the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is well aware of financial and other problems plaguing the country.

Talking to the media after a meeting with Nawaz Sharif, he said Nawaz Sharif wanted Pakistan back on the economic betterment track.

Presenting the Rs14.46 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 (FY24) in the National Assembly, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar listed the achievement of the PML-N government under Nawaz Sharif.

He accused the previous PTI government of the current economic fiasco and also presented a review of the three years tenure of the PTI government.

Dar said that when the coalition government took over from the PTI in 2022, the country’s economy was in dire straits, with forex reserves depleting and the IMF programme in the doldrums.

The finance minister said for the next year, GDP growth had been budgeted at 3.5 per cent, terming it a “modest target”. He said that this budget is “not an election budget” and is focusing on the “elements of the real economy”.