KARACHI: PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif said that PTI had not only erased the economic gains made under the PMLN government but had actually dragged the county back into an economic crisis.
“Today, after 3 years of PTI rule 33 percent of Pakistanis are below the poverty line and 40 percent are facing food insecurity,” said Shehbaz Sharif, while addressing a dinner hosted by Karachi’s business community at the residence of MNA Shaikh Qasier.
“Inflation is constantly increasing every week with the cost of fuel, essential commodities and food items are going upward and are getting out of the reach of the hardworking Pakistanis”.
“Inflation has skyrocketed from 3 percent under PMLN to 17 percent under PTI; cost of medicines has soared by 500 percent; flour price went from Rs35 to Rs 85 per kg; sugar from Rs52 per kg to Rs 120 per kg; electricity from Rs11 per unit to Rs 22 per unit with the circular debt shooting from Rs 1100 billion to Rs2,300 billion; gas cost up by 146 percent; lentils up by 40-80 percent; price of fertilisers double and cost of electricity for irrigation tube-wells has risen from Rs 5.35 to Rs 15 per unit,” he said.
The PMLN president said Imran Khan government increased national debt by 54 percent by borrowing in 3 years over half of what was borrowed over the past 71 years before PTI rule. “This government has added Rs9,000 billion to domestic debt and Rs4,000 billion to foreign debt, he said. This, he said, means that PTI was adding Rs4.747 trillion debt every year to the nation.”
He reminded the business community that under PMLN, Nawaz Sharif rescued the country from 18-hour load shedding and the menace of terrorism. “Nawaz Sharif set the country on the highway of economic progress by completing development projects worth trillions. Nawaz Sharif not only brought CPEC into Pakistan but under his leadership it was fast-tracked and projects were completed in record times, he said. “Nawaz Sharif saved hundreds of billions of dollars of the country in these projects.”.
“What did PTI achieve by the 45 percent devaluation of the rupee after plummeting national currency from Rs115 to Rs169 against the dollar? What dramatic spike in exports did PTI show?, he questioned. “Where was the team of 200 experts that were to take the Pakistan Steel Mills out of debt? Where were the 10 million jobs, and why were the jobs of 5 million people snatched away instead? Why is the PTI government increasing debt servicing from Rs1,500 billion to the historic high of Rs4,000 billion this year.”
He said the per capita income was reduced by 13 percent over PTI’s 3 years as the volume of the national economy shrunk to $296 billion from $315 billion which was a reduction of a whopping $19 billion over just 3 years.
UK says...: Pakistan on Red List as actual corona spread likely higher than reported
By Murtaza Ali Shah
LONDON: The British government has said that it decided to keep Pakistan in the travel ban Red List because the true number of COVID-19 cases is likely to be much higher than reported across Pakistan, according to a leaked communication obtained by The News and Geo.
Lord James Nicholas Bethell, Britain’s Health Minister and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Innovation from the Department of Health and Social Care, explained in a detailed communication that Pakistan’s testing and sequencing rates are relatively low (1.8 per 1,000 over the last 7 days) and lower testing and sequencing mean it is not possible to know the full genomic makeup of their current wave and the true number of cases is likely to be much higher than reported.
“The national testing rate varies considerably across regions. For example, in Punjab, Pakistan’s most densely populated region, with the highest number of active cases, testing is below Pakistan’s average rate and is the second lowest in the country,” said Lord Bethell in a communication with Yasmin Qureshi MP, the Chair of All Parties Parliamentary Group on Pakistan.
The letter from Lord Bethell was passed to this correspondent by a source.
Health Minister Lord Bethell said that the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) produces public health risk assessments to inform ministerial decisions on red, amber and green list countries and territories, and the associated border measures. “Following the latest assessment, the JBC continues to rate inbound travel from Pakistan as high-risk. The limited sequencing data available from Pakistan would suggest that they are currently experiencing a Delta wave, however, given the limitations in the available data, we could not be reassured that the outbreaks are due to known variants such as Delta, or if a novel cluster(s) of new or high risk variants are developing and/or driving the epidemiology in Pakistan,” he wrote.
Lord Bethell said that there was no reason other than Pakistan’s drive against the pandemic that Pakistan is in the Red List.
He said: “The UK Government is engaging constructively with the Government of Pakistan to explore ways that we can improve data availability and confidence and consequently our understanding of the current epidemiology within Pakistan. I met with Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK earlier this week to discuss these issues and we have established an expert working group to enable further technical engagement between senior public health officials and Pakistan’s senior health advisors. This will enable us to better understand the strategies employed by Pakistan, their understanding of the pandemic and establish stable and long-term access to the outcomes of Pakistan’s in-country genomic surveillance and sequencing.
“We appreciate the efforts the Government of Pakistan are making throughout the pandemic and will continue to work closely together. We are supporting their response to the pandemic, including through COVAX and through the development of Pakistan’s genomic sequencing capability. Through the New Variant Assessment Platform (NVAP) programme Pakistan will be able to draw on UK expertise and support to detect, analyse, and respond quickly to new, and potentially more dangerous, variants of COVID-19.”
Lord Bethell said the UK government understood the impact caused by the Red Listing decision will have on British Pakistanis but he said “it is right that the Government takes all available measures to reduce the risk of new strains of COVID-19 being imported into the UK”.
He explained the decision was based on the recommendations made by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) which produces public health risk assessments. “Ministers will take the JBC risk assessments into account alongside wider public health factors to inform watchlists and make their decisions. As with all our coronavirus measures, we keep these lists under constant review and our priority remains to protect the health of the UK public.”
The health minister informed that JBC analyse a range of qualitative and quantitative indicators to assess each country.
“The vast majority of data used to inform the risk assessment is in the public domain; however, some data cannot be published due to the privacy risks that disclosure may have on individuals or groups. To support decision making, JBC focuses the final assessment around three main criteria so that ministers know where the risks lie: genomic surveillance capability; COVID-19 transmission risk; and variant transmission risk.”
