PML (N) President and Opposition leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has dubbed the current economic situation as extremely dangerous believing if the present government stays in power then the next year the government will have to borrow for the payment of defence, pension and other expenditures to run its affairs, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The PML-N president said that the government had made the national economy as “debt economy” lamenting that the government was trying to dictate the IMF’s conditions to the parliament.

In a statement on Tuesday, Shehbaz said due to historic increase in the current account deficit, we would have to take loan in dollars. If we do not take loans in dollars, then our foreign reserves will start receding which will put our national security at jeopardy, he opined.

He stated that the government was continuously lying with the people that it was taking loans for repaying the debt of the previous government. However, the economic experts have revealed the truth otherwise and documents are negating the PTI government narrative, he added. The PTI government had to take loans due to its wrong economic policies, flawed decisions and battered state of economy. 

Due to wrong economic decisions pertaining to appreciating the value of dollar, reducing the national income, economic inertia and hiking the policy rate, our national economy has been turned into a “debt economy”, the opposition leader stated.

Shehbaz deplored that with an increase in the growth rate, our economy had started reviving but the agreement with the IMF proved fatal for it and it added fuel to fire. He said the present government agreed to two such conditions of the global lender which had never been agreed upon in the past. 

Now the government has railroaded some legislations from the parliament in compliance with the IMF conditions and it’s a hard blow to our national interests, he observed adding that the State Bank Act and supplementary tax laws bill were part of it. 

He said that the $55.5 trillion foreign debt spoke volume that the economy was in shambles. He said due to the inept and corrupt policies of Imran Niazi’s government, the country was heading to a “dead end” with every passing day. He said if the government completed its five-year tenure then the volume of debt would be increased more than twice and it would become a matter of Pakistan’s survival.