Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: While pitching his party’s policies to businessmen, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif shared that India was able to achieve economic success by adopting Pakistan’s policies.
In his address to the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Nawaz said that the PML-N was aware of the economic problems faced by the country. He also assured them that his party would keep on taking their advice as they had taken during their previous stints in government.
“The business community of Pakistan implemented our policies and India adopted our policies and achieved economic success,” said Nawaz who is leading his party’s campaign after returning to the country.
Nawaz returned to Pakistan on October 21 after four years of self-imposed exile in London and since then he has been busy galvanising his party’s base and meeting different political and business leaders in the run-up to February 8 polls. In his first such interaction with traders in Lahore, the PML-N supremo said that during his stint as prime minister from 2013-2017 Pakistan was ranked as the 24th best economy and had controlled the dollar for four years at 104.
“If our development [model] and policies were continued then the dollar would have been at 40 or 50,” claimed the three-time prime minister.
He added that when his government in 1998 conducted a nuclear test, the Islamic countries started seeing Pakistan as their protector.
“Today, the situation has become such that we are reliant on [them for] $ 1 billion, we have hit this axe on our own feet and these bad situations have arisen because of our own decisions,” said Nawaz.
Recalling his tenure, Nawaz reminded the businessmen that the policy rate was at 6.5%. He added that today the rate was at 22% and wondered who can do business in such an environment.
“We ourselves harmed our Parliament and prime ministers and then the country was handed over to whom, the rupee, the economy, and the entire system suffered a disaster,” said the PML-N leader.
