Former finance minister Asad Umar ─ only days after stepping down from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet amid a reshuffle ─ on Wednesday took the floor to respond to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s remarks in the Lower House regarding the country’s economic policy. “Bilawal said that the government had admitted to its failures [on the economic policy front] by changing the finance minister,” Umar recalled.
“Bilawal: there were four finance ministers in the PPP’s government [from 2008-2013],” the erstwhile finance minister reminded the PPP chairman. “Each tried to sell their own snake oil; each would fail and go home. If we are ‘not qualified’ and ‘failures’, what, then, were you?” he asked. “He [Bilawal] said that day that Pakistan’s ‘economic murder’ had taken place,” Umar said, referring to the PPP leader’s earlier statement. “So I decided to examine [Pakistan’s] history to get an idea of whether [the statement was right or wrong]; whether we have seen such [an economic] situation or even worse in the past.” “People are worried that GDP growth has slowed down,” Umar noted, acknowledging that growth rate estimates given by various observer bodies range from 3-3.9 per cent.
While he conceded that Pakistan definitely needs a stronger growth rate, “certain steps needed to be taken when there is a balance of payments deficit [to correct course], and this [the slowdown] is their natural outcome.”
He then compared the GDP growth rate in PTI’s tenure to the growth rate during the PPP government’s first year, which had averaged at just 0.4pc. He conceded that the PPP government had inherited a financial crisis, “but in their five years, what did they do [in bettering the situation]?” he asked.
Source: dawn.com
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
