LAHORE:Former general secretary of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Asad Umar on Friday reacted to former Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman Shabbar Zaidi’s claims that the country’s economy would have collapsed, had the PTI government completed its tenure. Taking to Twitter, Umar said: “Hello Shabbar bhai, where did this story come from?” He said that the PTI government was formed in August 2018, adding that the foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) stood at $9.8 billion at the end of the PTI government’s rule.

The PTI leader said the SBP’s reserves were $8.7 billion when he left the finance ministry in April 2019. “From where did the default story come?” Zaidi assumed the charge in 2019. He was removed from the post in April 2020. “Had the PTI government continued, the party would not have even secured 5 percent votes as the country would have economically collapsed,” Zaidi said while talking to a private TV channel. He said he had advised the PTI chief to rectify his government’s shortcomings and settle things, but he was not in the mood of listening to anyone.

Zaidi mentioned when he pointed out the economic crises, the PTI chief had removed Asad Umar as the finance minister. The former FBR chief also spoke about influential people forcing him to drop the cases against people close to them or those who were politically important. Zaidi said he “mistakenly” sent a notice to a landowner in Multan. “I asked him to reconcile his wealth with his agricultural income.” In response, 40 parliamentarians “barged into my office”, led by then-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, he added.

Zaidi said he tried bringing the tobacco industry people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the frontier regions into the tax net, but faced strong opposition from then-NA speaker Asad Qaiser. “You cannot do this…you cannot enter our areas,” Zaidi quoted Qaiser as saying. The PTI’s tenure was cut short in April 2022, when the government was ousted after the PTI chief was removed as the prime minister through a no-confidence motion, paving the way for Shehbaz Sharif and allies to come into power.

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