Senior PTI leader Shahbaz Gill addressing a press conference, revealed that “We were offered 30 percent cheaper gas and 30 percent cheaper petrol by Russia.” Talking about former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s much-debated trip to Russia, he highlighted that “Everybody was on board and insisted on the visit”. He maintained that “the visit was in line with the National Security Policy which we recently released that underscored the need to shift focus from geostrategic policies to geoeconomic policies.” He admitted that “America is a superpower” and said that “we want relations with the United States based on equality” and not where one side is dictating the other.
ن کے ہم نوا ایجنڈا پروموٹر ز کو پوچھتا ہوں
مہنگائی مہنگائی کی صدائیں کیوں بند ہیںامیر ہو گئے ہو
یا بے شرم ہو گئے ہو
کچھ تو بولو۔ کچھ تو جواب دو۔ یا ضمیر ٹھنڈی موت مر رہا ہے pic.twitter.com/w3FdJ6U2vd
— Dr. Shahbaz GiLL (@SHABAZGIL) May 4, 2022
He maintained that “we want friendly relations with the United States and underscored that we are not against any country.” We don’t want to suffix “Murdabad” with any country’s name but also want other countries to resonate with the sentiment, which includes not interfering in our policy matters. He added that currently, our policy was taking dictation from America, and “we will only trade with countries that America approves of and will not trade with countries America “Bahadar” disapproves of.” He underscored that this “signified a departure from the policy set forth in the national security policy which maintained that we would not indulge ourselves in bloc politics.”
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Separately Shahbaz Gill highlighted a few achievements of the PTI-led government. He added that when the PTI government took over, the country was collecting approximately Rs. 3700 billion in tax per annum, and with the grace of Allah, as the PTI-led government departed, the figure had soared to around Rs. 6500 billion per year. He added that the new government appreciated the efforts of the Chairman FBR but relieved him of his duties.
Similarly, all economic indicators reflected good performance on the part of the governor State Bank but the new government removed Reza Baqir from office. Gill highlighted that pilgrimage costs during the tenure of the PTI-led government cost around 4 lac; however, the new government ramped it up, and Haj now costs 10 lac. He pondered that if someone who subsidized Hajj was called “Yahoodi Agent,” then what should we call you, “Ibleesi agent?”
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Finally, the former SPAM added that the same people who are now in power used to call us out on inflation and high commodity prices. He questioned what had happened now; why don’t you talk about inflation. “Is it because now that you are in power you have pockets full of cash or that you have become conscience-stricken,” Gill added. He sarcastically noted that the same ghee which was being sold at Rs. 400 had now been “subisidized” and was priced at Rs. 500. He further added since taking power, the incumbent government had increased electricity prices by Rs. 5 per unit. He maintained that the incumbent government wanted to rob Pakistan of its independence by turning it into a beggar state. He underscored that this was the entire purpose behind bringing in this “imported government” because “beggars cannot be choosers.”