-Says critical time ahead towards peak of virus tide | Asks people to act responsibly
By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday said Pakistan’s economy was improving prior to the coronavirus pandemic, duly recognized by international credit rating agencies and its exports were now rising at a fast pace on month-on-month basis.
Speaking on the budget in the National Assembly, he said exports of Pakistan were rising, on month-on-month basis, at the fastest rate this year and added international agencies had rated Pakistan at B3, which was recognition of the country’s improving economy.
He said the lockdown had negative repercussions for the economy in Pakistan, while strict lockdown imposed by India, had an adverse effect on its economy.
He pointed out that rate of coronavirus infections was still higher in India as compared to Pakistan and people in cities like Mumbai, were forced to wait outside hospitals to get treatment against coronavirus.
The PM said in India, 34 percent of the population had gone below the poverty line in the wake of lockdown. Millions of people were out on the roads to find work and to make ends meet when measures for a lockdown
were taken, he added.
He said due to coronavirus, the world was in recession and countries suffered losses of $ 12 trillion; many industries were closed down permanently; services sector particularly tourism and airline industry suffered immense losses and the world still did not know how long the economic crisis would continue. He said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government inherited record level of current account deficit as previously exports were stagnant at $ 20 billion while imports going upto $ 60 billion. The high current account deficit showed that the country’s economy was sick, he noted.
He further said the deficit put pressure on the dollar exchange rate which in turn made imports expensive, and that led to higher inflation which adversely impacted prices of utilities and commodities and increased poverty. The total debt and liabilities went up from Rs 16000 billion to Rs 30000 billion during the 10-year tenures of previous governments and PTI government in its the first year, spent half of the collected revenue on paying off installments of loans taken in the past, he explained. Imran said the PTI government did not borrow from the State Bank while in the past Rs six trillion were borrowed.
He said his government inherited circular debt of Rs 1.2 trillion and expensive electricity and gas contracts. The gas purchase contract was for 15 years while now gas was available in the world at much reduced price, he added.
He said the Opposition should be asked why it wreak havoc with country’s economy. The Prime Minister said he led the austerity drive to set example for others, cut expenditure of the PM House and reduced to half its staff of 534. “We can further reduce the staff but we don’t want to put people out of work.” The profile of government borrowing was changed as previously 70 percent of its borrowing was expensive and for short term but now 76 percent of the loans were taken on a long term basis, he added.
He said National Disaster Management Authority was given all the powers and the government would meet all its expenses to tackle locust which potentially could be very dangerous for the country.
He said National Command and Operation Center was regularly receiving reports from cities, towns and different parts of the country, monitoring all hotspots of coronavirus and cordoning off areas with high incidence of the disease.
In order to relieve pressure from the civil administration, newly formed Tiger Force was given the task to enforce the standard operating procedures for coronavirus, he said. “If we can spend one month with care, we can save ourselves from the ill-effects of coronavirus.”
He said Rs 30 billion were allocated so that people could get financing to build affordable houses at subsidized interest rates.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that the next phase in the country’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic is difficult and urged the nation to strictly follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) to avoid the tough situation, media reported. Prime Minister Imran Khan, while addressing the National Assembly, said Pakistan is going through a difficult situation, urging people to follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) properly to defeat coronavirus.
“If we can get past this month without numbers escalating, the worse could be over,” he said, adding that warning negligence could make matters worse. “It is our duty to make people realise how important it is to save the elderly and those with comorbidities. The next phase is critical and we can avoid the worse by taking precautions”, added the prime minister. “If people take precautions than our health system will recover the situation as sufficient facilities are available here in the country. If we complete this month with extreme care than we can be prevented from the negative impacts of coronavirus.” The prime minister lauded the National Command and Operations Centre’s (NCOC) efforts in forming and implementing Pakistan’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The government had constituted a team in NCOC which comprised of doctors and cabinet members, he said.
Addressing criticism by opposition parties about government’s confusion to tackle Covid-19, the prime minister said, “It was only Pakistan’s government which was not confused about its to tackling Covid-19”.
“I want to challenge the opposition to point out a single contradiction in my statements since we imposed the lockdown,” he said.
PM Imran said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government introduced smart lockdown instead of imposing complete lockdown in order to protect people from the disease and hunger. “34 per cent of people have gone below the poverty line in India due to complete lockdown which vindicates our stance of not going for complete curfew”.
Commenting over the economic situation, the premier said that the present government had received a weak economy with a deficit of $20 billion while $60 billion were being spent on imports. The government contacted the country’s allies to seek financial support as Pakistan had reached to default stage which needed a timely decision for the nationals. The circular debt had reached Rs1.2 trillion when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came into power. He said that the federal government had immediately adopted austerity measures after coming into power in order to reduce expenditures. The current account deficit has been reduced to $3 billion from $20 billion, whereas, the primary deficit was ended during the ongoing tenure of PTI. He added that the Pakistan Army cut its expenditures for the second time.
The premier said that the staff at the PM House could be reduced further, however, the decision was not taken due to the current scenario as the government was not willing to unemploy people. He also criticised the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) agreement, saying that the 15-year agreement was not signed by the present government while the gas rates were low in the international market today. He elaborated that the poverty alleviation programme, Ehsaas, had been introduced with the allocation of Rs208 billion. “Our tax growth was 17 per cent before the commencement of [COVID-19] lockdown. We have paid off Rs5,000 billion loans acquired by the previous governments.” He said that the world has admitted the fact that coronavirus created biggest-ever economic crisis of the century, whereas, $12 trillion financial loss were recorded around the world in accordance to International Monetary Fund (IMF). He said that nobody could predict the recovery time of the global economies. “Despite facing a difficult situation, the federal government has not reduced its PSDP Public Sector Development Programme) funds in order to smoothly run the economy besides lifting duties on thousands of raw materials.”
“We are trying to resume tourism under SOPs after reopening construction sector by allocating Rs30 billion. We will also make efforts to privatise the construction and agriculture sectors. Chinese technology will be used to upgrade the agriculture sector.” PM Imran Khan further said that it was the foreign policy of Pakistan for not participating in the United States’ (US) war. He asked US President Donald Trump to take further steps for the establishment of peace in Afghanistan. PM Khan reiterated that the Modi-led government was based on fascism and Hindutva ideology which is being opposed by the Indian people. Pakistan has exposed the Indian government’s RSS ideology before the world that changed the international media’s opinion regarding India, he added.
The world has also witnessed the real situation of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) due to Pakistan and the global leaders were not discussing the ongoing barbarism in the occupied valley.
He added that the movement of Kashmir could not be stopped as the issue reaches the point of no return. Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday challenged members of the National Assembly “to point out a single contradiction” in his statements on the response to the pandemic, saying Pakistan was not confused. In a rare appearance in an NA session, PM Imran defended his government’s coronavirus response after it came under criticism from opposition for being “confused”.
“We bore a lot of criticism in the beginning to impose a stricter lockdown. There was a lot of pressure on me. From my own people. From my own cabinet to impose something like India [did],” said the premier. “The world has been experimenting in their own ways.
“Repeatedly, it is being said there was confusion. Mr Speaker, if there was any government in the world that wasn’t confused it was ours. Since day one,” he added.
PM Imran also challenged the Opposition to point out any conflicting statements he may have made ever since Pakistan imposed the lockdown. “I want to challenge you to point out a single contradiction in my statements since we imposed the lockdown on March 13,” he said. PM Imran reiterated that Pakistan’s population density, circumstances, and economic conditions were different from the Chinese city of Wuhan, Singapore, and New Zealand.
The premier said that if Pakistan followed the lockdown policies of the western governments, then it would mean difficulties for the poor.”I have always held that if you have Singapore’s population, an income of $50,000 per capita, if you have natural social distancing, then the best thing is to impose a curfew.
“I also said that our conditions are such, we have to think of the impact on the poor. These have been consistent statements on my behalf. You have all my speeches on record,” he said. The premier paid a special tribute to the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) as Pakistan has data to act on due to its efforts to establish proper coordination between provinces. “We had no figures previously for how many ventilators exist in Pakistan, how many intensive care beds there are, how much staff is available,” he said.
He said India’s example of a failed lockdown policy was being highlighted everywhere, including by The New York Times. As a result, he commented, 34% people have been pushed into poverty there. “The poor people have been crushed. There are thousands on the road. Transport has been shut. People have died on the road,” he said, highlighting the impact of a strict lockdown on the poor people in India.
Even in America, people can see that cases are constantly ballooning and they have had to accept they have to reopen their economies, he added.
“They, too, are realising that even the world’s most powerful economy cannot endure the effects of a lockdown,” he said, continuing to defend his government’s decision to ease curbs. “We were the first to talk of a smart lockdown. It was the NCOC,” he said.
The prime minister said the next phase was a difficult one, with the government challenged to impress upon people the importance of following standard operating procedures.
“We have to provide people a source of income but […] whenever there are clusters [of people], the disease spreads. We also know that if we do not exercise caution, the existing pressure on hospital will only worsen.”
“So whoever is watching, it is necessary for all of us to make people realise how important is is to save our elders, the sick, those who have blood pressure [issues] and diabetes. The real aim behind a smart lockdown is to protect these people,” he said.
