Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry, while reacting to the opposition leaders’ media talks, on Thursday said that he wished they would have paid attention to economy’s deterioration while they were in power.
In an apparent reference to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s press conference earlier in the day, Chaudhry said that now that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report is out, the opposition had overnight become ‘people-friendly’.
He said the entire nation is facing the brunt of misdeeds of previous rulers, who had ruined the economy with loans. “The people of Pakistan have thrown out the plunderers from the corridors of power; they should not portray themselves as innocent now”, he said.
Terming the previous governments responsible for the economic crisis, he said that the nation was facing the consequences of the recklessness of the past rulers.
“Past governments ruined the foundations of the economy and burdened the country with an unprecedented amount of loans”, Chaudhry said.
He said that the opposition could contribute to the economy’s betterment by holding a joint press conference against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former President Asif Ali Zardari.
“Opposition leaders should ask them to bring back the looted wealth”, he advised the opposition, adding that by holding press conferences [such as those of Abbasi], the opposition leaders became ‘complicit in the crime’.
He said that those talking negatively about the Mohmand Dam couldn’t digest the practical step taken for the construction of the dam.
“Those who filled their own houses [with wealth] are finding themselves unable to accept the [Mohmand] dam’s construction”, he said.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had, on Thursday afternoon, held a press conference in Islamabad in which he had sharply criticised the government’s economic policies.
Published in Daily Times, January 4th 2019.
