Rana Afzal seeks opposition support for evolving Charter of Economy

ISLAMABAD, Apr 12 (APP):Minister of State for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan on Thursday
sought support of opposition for evolving Charter of Economy (CoE) like Charter of Democracy (CoD) and requested the Chairman Senate to constitute a committee in this regard.
Replying to various supplementary questions during Question Hour, the minister said economy
was a serious issue of the country and it should not be politicized.
“We should join hand on the issue of economy as around Rs 600 billion government resources
annually drain out in state owned enterprises like PIA, Pakistan Steel Mills
etc which can be utilize in other development projects,” he said.
He said the government has succeeded to eradicate menace of terrorism in the country and
now efforts were being made to strengthen the economy.
He said there was no crisis in the country and government has proper schedule for
payment of $ 3.3 billion during the current year.
He said all loans were cleared as per payment schedule and we never remained defaulter.
Afzal Khan said the Principal amount outstanding of External Public Debt as of 30th June,
2016 and 30th June, 2017 was $ 57,721 million and $ 62,488 million respectively. No amount of
interest was outstanding as of 30th June, 2016 and 30th June, 2017 as regular
debt servicing has been made during the said period, he said.
The minister said the cumulative debt servicing made during FY 2016-17 was $ 6,347,669
million.