Khawaja Asif lambasts PTI's 'relief' budget, wants PM's financial advisors on ECL.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Parliamentary Leader in National Assembly Khawaja Muhammad Asif while initiating debate on the financial year 2020-21 budget in National Assembly on Monday termed top government officials having a career history with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as mercenaries, saying Budget 2020-21 was a "temporary one". He said that Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has come to Pakistan for offering last rites of the economy, adding that Hafeez Shaikh should be placed on ECL so that he should not go back later on.

"There will be a mini-budget and more taxes will be imposed," Khawaja Asif said. "These are mercenaries; why are they brought [to power]?"

The PML-N leader, taking note of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, said he honoured the healthcare professionals - including doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff - for not only putting their own lives on stake but also potentially risking their families as well. "This government's policies are against them," he added.

The former foreign minister said the incumbent PTI-led government was drawing back economically; "in fact, it has acknowledged defeat without saying it publicly," he said.

Comparing the current government's performance with that of the prior one led by the PML-N, he said growth in gross domestic product (GDP), agriculture, large-scale manufacturing, industrial, and service sectors were 5.5%, 4%, 5%, 4.9%, and 6.2%, respectively; the same under Prime Minister Imran Khan's "Naya Pakistan", however, were -0.4%, 2.7%, -0.78%, -2.6%, and -0.6%, respectively, he noted.

Similarly, tax collection, inflation, gross public debt, debt-to-GDP ratio, and exports were Rs3,842 billion, 3.9%, Rs24,953 billion, 72.1%, Rs24.8 billion, respectively, during Nawaz's era and Rs3,844 billion, 11.2%, Rs35,207 billion, 85.0%, Rs19.7 billion, respectively, during Khan's tenure.

The fiscal deficit-to-GDP ratio, public sector development programme (PSDP), the government's running expenditures, and unemployment were -6.6%, Rs750 billion, Rs402 billion, and 5.8%, respectively, during the PML-N tenure, whereas the same under PM Imran's administration were -9.2%, Rs623 billion, Rs475 billion, and 8.5%, respectively.

"The figures explain everything," Asif said. "Unemployment is rising and millions of people are becoming jobless," Asif said. "Imran Khan was brought with great desire and pampering."

On government's running expenditures, he said Planning Minister Asad Umar had...