ISLAMABAD: Miftah Ismail, Finance Minister, said former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s helicopter commute between his Bani Gala home and the PM Secretariat cost Rs550 million to the national exchequer in three years and eight months.
Khan used a helicopter to travel to his office almost every day when he was in power, and the money was spent on the fuel consumed by the helicopter.
The then PM had faced criticism when he started to use helicopter for daily commute shortly after coming to power. However, Fawad Chaudry, who was information minister, had claimed at the time that it would cost Rs55 per kilometer.
Miftah Ismail said he had the documentary evidence to back up his claim.
Miftah also said that the PTI government has left a huge circular debt of Rs2500 billion in power sector and had created Rs1500 billion circular debt in the natural gas sector.
The finance minister said he was comfortable working with State Bank of Pakistan Governor Reza Baqir, who was appointed by the Imran Khan government, but that a final decision would be made by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The finance minister said that the government needs to revive IMF programme to avoid economic crises and may also borrow money from Saudi Arabia.
He said putting the country on the trajectory to growth was not difficult and PML-N led government was planning to induce a growth that would help boost exports.
Miftah said as long as Shehbaz Sharif was the prime minister no was one has to worry about the future.
He also said that the PML-N government had taken the responsibility to rescue the country and live up to its promise without blaming others.
