Tag: PDM government

  • ‘We made a mistake, forgive us’: Khurshid Shah apologises for PPP being part of PDM govt

    ‘We made a mistake, forgive us’: Khurshid Shah apologises for PPP being part of PDM govt

    Senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Khurshid Shah has publicly admitted that his party’s decision to join the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) coalition government was a mistake.

    In an interview on Dawn News, Shah sought forgiveness for the move, emphasizing the need for a specific election date.

    “We were there 16 months [in the government]. We made a mistake, forgive us. We committed a mistake,” Shah stated, acknowledging the party’s misstep.

    The PPP leader stated that the past should be left behind and emphasized the need for a specific election date.

    When asked again if the PPP had erred by participating in the previous coalition
    government, Shah reiterated, “I say forgive us, we made a mistake. There, are you content? Now, provide the [election] date.”

    He mentioned that the PPP’s support wasn’t directed at any specific government but rather aimed at upholding democracy and the parliament.

    “We upheld and safeguarded the slogan of ‘vote ko izzat do’ (respect the vote), not the PML-N. Despite that, we say, forgive us, as we were part of the government for 16 months, so please forgive us.

    “It was a mistake, so now announce the elections. What else are we requesting?”

    In response to a query regarding the PPP’s initial congratulatory message to caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar and subsequent accusations of favoritism towards the PML-N, Shah clarified, “The PML-N is part of that [caretaker government], we are not. We could also have joined and secured four ministries, but we realized that by doing so, we might hinder the prospect of timely elections.”

    He further emphasized that the PPP’s primary goal was to ensure elections proceed in accordance with the law and the Constitution.

  • Chief Justice sacrificed judiciary’s reputation for mother-in-law, says Maryam Nawaz

    While harshly criticizing the judges’ remarks in the audio leaks case, Maryam Nawaz said that the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJ) Umar Atta Bandial has sacrificed the judiciary’s reputation for his mother-in-law.

    Taking to X ( formerly Twitter) on Friday, Maryam Nawaz wrote, “Umar Atta Bandial Sahib and like-minded people sacrificed the reputation of the judiciary for the sake of mother-in-law. Sorry”

    The Supreme Court of Pakistan has rejected the objections of the former Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government against a five-member bench hearing the alleged audio leaks case.

    The five-member larger bench, led by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Umar Atta Bandial, and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsen, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, and Justice Shahid Waheed, was formed earlier this year, in May.

    The PDM government had filed a civil miscellaneous application (CMA) to the top court, requesting that CJP Bandial, Justice Ahsan, and Justice Akhtar bow out from the five-member larger bench hearing the case.

    The short verdict announced by Justice Ahsan on Friday said that the objections of the PDM government against the judges were the same as an “attack on the independence of the judiciary”.

    The SC reserved its decision on the PDM government’s petition of June 6.

    The government, in its CMA, said: “Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Munib Akhtar should not listen to the audio leak case,” the petition appealed, adding that the “three respected judges should refuse to sit in the five-member larger bench.”

    “In the circumstances, till the next date of hearing, the operation of the impugned notification No.SRO.596(I)/2023 dated 19.05.2023 issued by the Federal Government is suspended as is the order dated 22.05.2023 made by the Commission and in consequence thereof proceedings of the Commission are stayed”, Chief Justice Umer Ata Bandial had announced in a short order.

  • PDM govt adds Rs18.5 trillion to Pakistan’s debt in just 15 months

    PDM govt adds Rs18.5 trillion to Pakistan’s debt in just 15 months

    In a span of just 15 months, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government has significantly added Rs18.5 trillion to the country’s public debt, a striking amount surpassing the debt accumulation of its rival, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), during its three-and-a-half-year tenure.

    Between March 2022 and the close of the 2022–23 fiscal year, the gross public debt surged from Rs44.4 trillion to Rs62.9 trillion. This rapid increase of 41.7 per cent in just 15 months occurred without a well-defined strategy to curb it. As a result, the federal government’s debt, for which the finance ministry bears direct responsibility, escalated to Rs60.8 trillion by June 2023. The debt bulletin, published on a recent Wednesday, indicates an addition of Rs18 trillion during the PDM government’s one year and three months in power.

    As per a report in the Express Tribune by Shehbaz Rana, this unsustainable surge in public debt is mainly ascribed to unregulated spending, insufficient revenue collection from areas such as real estate, services, and agriculture, alongside the diminishing value of the Pakistani rupee in comparison to the US dollar.

    It’s worth noting that the government under Imran Khan added Rs18.1 trillion to the public debt over a span of 44 months, a threshold that the current administration led by Shehbaz Sharif managed to surpass in just 15 months. However, it’s important to mention that the debt figure for July has yet to be compiled by the State Bank of Pakistan.

    This trend becomes even more significant when we consider that the combined debt addition by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) from 2008 to 2018 was Rs18 trillion. Another Rs18 trillion was added from August 2018 to March 2022 during Imran Khan’s government, and now the PDM government has contributed an additional Rs18.5 trillion in a remarkably brief period of 15 months.

    Comparatively, from September 1, 2018, to the end of March 2022, the PTI government, on average, increased the public debt by Rs14.5 billion per day, more than double the average daily increase of Rs5.6 billion during the PML-N period. The PDM government has further escalated this daily addition to an average of Rs41 billion.

    By the time the PTI government’s term concluded, the total public debt amounted to Rs44.4 trillion, equivalent to 83.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) before the economy’s rebasing. Following the rebasing process, there was a 15 per cent reduction in public debt relative to GDP but no reduction in absolute terms.

    At present, the public debt constitutes 74.3 per cent of the GDP. Steep currency depreciation has also contributed to the federal government’s debt. Over the past 15 months, the total domestic debt of the federal government surged to Rs38.8 trillion, an addition of Rs10.8 trillion (or 38 per cent). When Imran Khan left office, the domestic debt stood at Rs28 trillion.

    Alarmingly, the external debt of the federal government surged by 48 per cent to Rs22 trillion within just 15 months, with a net increase of Rs7.1 trillion attributed largely to currency depreciation. By the end of March 2022, the external debt, excluding IMF liabilities, was Rs14.9 trillion.

    External debt constitutes roughly 36 per cent of the total debt, and fluctuations in the exchange rate have a significant impact on debt even without borrowing additional funds. In a span of 15 months, the rupee-dollar parity plummeted from Rs183.5 to Rs286.4, a decline of Rs103 or 56 per cent. This substantial and rapid depreciation has also contributed to inflation.

    On a recent Wednesday, the rupee slid further to Rs295. An immediate outcome of this mounting debt is a considerable rise in the cost of debt servicing. It is projected that debt servicing will exceed Rs5.8 trillion by the end of the last fiscal year. 

    As a result of reckless borrowing, Pakistan’s total debt and liabilities have surged to Rs77.1 trillion, equivalent to 91.1 per cent of the national economy’s size. This ratio is deemed unsustainable for a developing nation like Pakistan.

    During the past four years of the IMF programme, Pakistan struggled to enhance the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) tax-to-GDP ratio, despite it being a priority for both the IMF and the World Bank.

    This raises concerns about the effectiveness of obtaining foreign loans for the sake of tax reform. Moreover, there has been a lack of serious efforts to control expenditures. The Shehbaz Sharif government, like its predecessors, continued to allocate funds to projects and initiatives that fall under provincial jurisdiction as per the constitution.