Leaders of the opposition parties have tried to debunk the government claim of satisfactory performance on economic and foreign policy fronts. The critique of PML-N President Shabaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardar is apparently substantive. Both of them seem in agreement that PTI government has mismanaged the economy in its past two years rule. In sharp contrast of generic political phraseology of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Shabaz Sharif has refereed to economic indicators. According to PML-N President, the GDP growth rate was +5.8 percent in 2018 which declined to-0.45 percent in 2020. The positive economic growth during the tenure of PML-N government was largely non-productive expenditure driven as the economy was in the state of deep stagflation and Pakistan was heading towards becoming a trading nation as current account deficit had swelled to $35 billion. Production in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors was falling. In the present government the agriculture has performed well despite recurring locust attacks. Yes the present government has not succeed to clear the fiscal landmines, which were laid by former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and his close lieutenant, former Finance Secretary Dr. Waqar Masood, who is still in high office in the incumbent government as well after retirement from government service. He was the strong proponent of availing frontloaded IMF programme, whereas the renowned economist Dr. Ashfaq Hassan Khan had publically opposed it. Most of the woes of the people to which Shabaz Sharif has referred have been caused by the conditions imposed by IMF. The worst impact of the last PML-N government power sector agreements on economy is yet to come. The present government has merely succeeded in signing the MOUs with IPPs that had been set up under the power policies of 1994 and 2002 for lowering their profit by assuring reduction markup on bank loans from 5 percent to 2 percent. The MOUs will terminate after six months if not converted into formal agreements. The allegation is not correct that present government has slowed the pace of work on CPEC related projects. Construction work on Mitiari-Lahore high voltage transmission line is in progress and contract has been signed for Kohala power project. The PML-N government had signed an MOU for the upgradation of Peshawar-Karachi railway track, ML-1, at a cost of $9.2 billion, which the present government reduced to $6.806 billion, ensuring a saving of $2.4 billion. ECNEC approval for the project has been granted and reservations of multilateral donor agencies on the debt sustainability have been addressed by substantially reducing the cost of ML-1. In sharp contrast to docile Kashmir Policy of the PML-N government, the incumbent government has internationalized this issue, which is evident from three meetings of UNSC in one year. In addition to pursuing proactive career diplomacy on Kashmir, public diplomacy is also being launched. The statement of Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Quershi urging Saudi Arabia to lead OIC on the resolution of Kashmir dispute was not tantamount to offend a brotherly Islamic country as the opposition alleges.
On the diplomatic front the PTI government has done well. However, it has not succeeded to turn around the economy by completely sweeping the fiscal mines of previous governments.
