On Thursday, the Pakistani government banned the import of all non-essential luxury items such as cars, mobile phones, home appliances, and weapons under an “emergency economic plan”. Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb confirmed the ban soon after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the decision on Twitter, saying the move would “save the country’s precious foreign exchange”.
“We will do penance, and financially strong people should lead in this effort so that the less privileged among us do not have to bear the burden imposed on them by the PTI government,” the Prime Minister tweeted. With “Resolve and Resolve”. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that the dollar had seen a meteoric rise against the rupee in the past few weeks due to the country’s rising import bill, rising current account deficit and depleting foreign exchange reserves.
The dollar broke all records on Thursday and jumped 200 rupees in the interbank market.
During a press conference, the information minister assured the nation that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) premier was “working day and night to stabilize the economy”. Aurangzeb said the banned items included cars, phones, dry fruits, home appliances, weapons, frozen meat, fruits, furniture, make-up, shampoos, cigarettes, and musical instruments that were not used by the general public.
The minister said that under the government’s economic plan, local industries would prosper while employment opportunities would also be created. Criticizing the former PTI-led government, the PML-N minister said that cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan had put all cases against his regime in cold storage.
Terming it’ economic terrorism’, the minister blamed the PTI government for the steep rise in inflation. “He promised an unfunded [fuel] subsidy and played with the economy. He tried to implicate the incoming government,” he claimed, adding that Imran was woefully unaware of the country’s economic problems. Has the ability and experience to fix the issue. The move to ban imported goods is aimed at stabilizing the economy.”
However, PTI leader Hammad Azhar questioned the government’s move, arguing that these items constitute only a tiny percentage of the country’s import bill. “These steps will affect lakhs of traders and shopkeepers and will also impact bilateral trade,” he tweeted. He said the move would lead to an increase in smuggling. “The non-oil current account deficit is just under USD 1 billion. These measures to ban items would be irrelevant,” he predicted.