LAHORE: PML-N vice president Hamza Shehbaz says that after coming into power his party will sit together with all other political forces to draft a joint 10-year economic plan to steer the country out of economic swamp and put it on the path of progress.

Speaking at a workers’ convention in his constituency NA-118 here on Monday, he said the tiger (election symbol of the PML-N) would roar on Feb 8 when the election would decide the fate of the country.

After coming into power, he said, the party would not take revenge from anyone because it had surrendered its case before the Almighty and it would rather invite all political forces to sit together and draft a unanimous economic plan. He said the proposed plan would have constitutional cover so that economic roots might be strengthened.

Hamza recalled that in 2013, the PML-N government had overcome the electricity loadshedding and terrorism and had put the country on the ladder of economic development.

“It kept inflation and US dollar rate under control and improved the economic growth rate from 1.9pc to more than 6pc, undertook construction of the motorways and other mega projects.”

But, he regretted, the succeeding PTI government took steps that damaged the national economy to the extent that the country had to bow to the world for just $1bn. These PTI policies, he said, caused high inflation giving the people sleepless nights and making them think to pay bills of utilities, sending their children to school or feeding their families. Had the PTI government not been removed through a no-confidence vote, the country would have gone bankrupt very shortly, he added.

In a successful bid to check the bankruptcy, Hamza Shehbaz said, the PML-N assumed power for 16 months and was paying political price for the endeavour because the general public did not know who was responsible for the economic meltdown and resultantly high inflation in the country.

The PML-N leader urged the workers to take the Feb 8 polls as an opportunity to bring back the era of progress and prosperity in the country and not just the win of Nawaz Sharif.

Recalling the political victimisation carried out by the PTI regime, he said Shahzad Akbar held two-hour-long press conferences for four years, all available financial records were searched but could not find even one-rupee corruption against Nawaz Sharif.

The PTI founder, on the other hand, did not spare even gifts by foreign dignitaries of wristwatches and now he had to be held accountable for the corruption of 190m pounds, he concluded.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2024