Shahbaz urges ‘patriotic forces’ to ‘open your eyes’ to looming economic crisis

LAHORE: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif called on “patriotic forces of Pakistan” to reflect on the looming “economic catastrophe” as “time is running out” a day after the rupee fell to an all-time low of 176.42 to the dollar.

In a Twitter thread posted to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) official account, the party president termed the historic rise of the dollar and the depreciating value of the rupee a sign of the impending “storm of economic catastrophe”. He described the dollar rise and rupee fall as “proof of the lack of government and sound economic policy in the country”.

Shahbaz said: “When the Ministry of Finance refutes the statement of its finance adviser, false statistics are given, then such is the state of the economy.

“Record trade deficits are alarming indicators of the country’s economic downturn; Debt, inflation, deficits, dollar, everything has broken records, if there was a people’s elected government in the country, this would not be the case today.”

He said the country had been “pushed into an economic abyss” and if “nothing is done soon, returning [from there] will be impossible”.

Shahbaz warned that more catastrophic inflation was coming from December 1, as the flight of the dollar is fuelling the “fire of inflation”. “Economic catastrophe is poison for nuclear Pakistan and its security interests,” he said. “For God’s sake open your eyes.”

He then followed it up by saying: “Economic catastrophe will create [such] a storm in which we will forget about FATF and other issues. Let the patriotic forces of Pakistan reflect on the economic and public catastrophe with the spirit of patriotism. Time is running fast.”