A top official during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government said that if the Imran Khan-led government had completed its term, the country would have been economically devastated.
The PTI’s term ended in April 2022, when the government was overthrown after Khan was removed as prime minister through a no-confidence motion, paving the way for Shahbaz Sharif and allies to come to power. was done
One of the main reasons behind the ouster of the Khan-led government was economic mismanagement and the increasing burden of inflation on the people, as claimed by the current rulers, who were in opposition at the time.
Former Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) chief Shabbar Zaidi told JEE News, “If this […] government had continued, the party would not have secured even 5 percent of the vote because the country is economically poor.” would have been destroyed.”
The former head of the tax collection agency said he had advised Khan to address his government’s shortcomings and “fix things, but he was in no mood to listen to [anyone]”.
Although Zaidi – who served as the head of the federal tax collection agency until 2019-2020 – noted that when he pointed to Pakistan’s economic woes during the PTI era, Khan appointed Asad Umar as minister. He was removed from the post of treasurer.
Forgiving non-taxpayers
Zaidi also talked about influential people forcing him to drop cases against people close to him or politically important people.
The economist said he sent the notice to a Multan zamindar “by mistake”. “I asked him to combine his wealth with his agricultural income.”
In response, 40 MPs led by then Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi “barged into my office”.
Zaidi said that former legislator Sardar Nasrullah Khan Dreshk told him during the meeting that the people in his office were “South Punjab MNAs, and the government cannot run without them”.
“I’ve seen so many governments […] leave it at that […] you’re a child now,” Zaidi told Dereshk.
The former FBR chief said that he tried to bring people from the tobacco industry in the border areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into the tax net, but he faced stiff opposition from the then Speaker of the National Assembly, Asad Qaiser.
“You can’t do that… you can’t enter our territories,” Zaidi quoted Qaiser as saying.
