Deputy speaker urges govt to come clean on true economic state

Deputy Speaker of parliament, Dhiggaru MP Ahmed Nazim has said that the country needs a true picture of the current economic situation.

Speaking to the Finance Committee of Parliament, Nazim said on Tuesday that the Finance Ministry should share the challenges facing the economy even if it's a "bitter pill to swallow", as well as the plans for the future. He said the people should also have true information about the state of the economy.

At Tuesday's meeting, Nazim said the Finance Ministry should hold the meeting open to the media to share information on the economy with the parliamentary committee.

'...there's nothing to hide. Even if you are allowed to say what you have to say in secret, the people of the country need to hear this in the right language,' the Deputy Speaker said.

"It's because people's expectations and everything depends on those topics”.

Nazim said the people should know whether the projects in the islands will continue or not.

The election season is over and the people must face the reality of the state of the economy, he added.

"We have to learn to confront reality now. Otherwise we have dark days ahead," Nazim said.

"We will only be able to imagine it if the Finance Ministry gives us the right picture”.

He said the Public Accounts Committee should put the interests of the country's finances first, not the interests of the party or personal interests.

It is something that needs to be done in the interest of the people and the country, he said.

"Even Sri Lanka failed right in front of us about two years ago. There were those so-called closest countries even then. There was China. There was India. But all those countries just let it happen," he said.

The reason, Nazim said, is that the economy lacked the basics.

"If you don't improve the basics, the basics of an economy, they say it's like giving money to an alcoholic. Give the poor fellow some money and he will go and get drunk, and then come back asking for more money the next day”, he went on.

Nazim said rich countries like Saudi Arabia are not giving cash injections as aid anymore.

"...they didn't give it to Pakistan. Now they don't give it to Egypt. They are saying that they will give the support needed when the country sets the economic foundations to the standards accepted by the IMF and World Bank. Saudi Arabia has already put a USD 3 billion deposit in Pakistan's central bank to stabilise the foreign currency only,” Nazim said.

"...but that's only because they took the bitter pill that the IMF and the World Bank prescribed. So if we have a prescription with bitter pills, we should know that as well... what we should do, what we must do... going bankrupt instead of working on it won’t do”.

Thus, Nazim said that it is time to find out the real status of the economy.

"If it's bad, we have to know that as well. We have to know what we have to do about it," he said.

Whether it is a tax increase or something else, it can be submitted to parliament and voted on only after it is disclosed and the information is received, he said.

He said parliament should have an in-depth conversation with the finance ministry.

"We should see what we can do now. Look, in English, we should have a hard talk with the finance ministry. Don't bullshit, tell the truth, tell it the way it should be," he said.

Nazim asked for a meeting with the Ministry of Finance as soon as possible. The committee has decided to meet the ministry on June 10.