KARACHI: Former finance minister Miftah Ismail has said that the gross domestic product (GDP) loss per day due to the country’s shutdown is Rs 300 billion.
He said that the political parties need to sit together and talk about resolving the political instability. “Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is planning on staging a sit-in. They should try to convince other parties to join them as well,” Ismail said.
He said that the PTI is focused solely on getting former PTI chairman Imran Khan released from jail, while they should be focusing on democracy. “Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Yasmin Rashid and other [PTI leaders] are in jail…PTI made a mistake and now they are focused only on Imran Khan’s release,” he said.
“Even if 20,000 or even 100,000 PTI protestors come out on the roads, it won’t make any difference”
Former finance minister Miftah Ismail
The former finance minister also spoke on the internet shutdown in major cities, including Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. “This shutdown in the country is causing Pakistan a daily loss of nearly Rs300 billion. Even if only Lahore or Islamabad are shut down, even that causes Rs100 to Rs125 billion losses per day”. Ismail said that the closure of schools affects the education of children as well.
There is still a dispute in the country whether the elections were transparent or not. The constitution was violated, the independence of the judiciary was attacked to save the seat. Miftah Ismail said that the people had decided on February 8, the government did not accept it.
Speaking about the PTI’s protest rally, he said “Even if 20,000 or even 100,000 people come out on the roads, it won’t make any difference,” adding that “PTI has gotten used to holding sit-ins since 2014 but the way they are using state machinery in this is illegal”.
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