The Government on Thursday derided Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan after he offered financial aid to India, claiming that Indians would not be able to survive for more than a week without assistance.
In a sharp retort to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s offer to share experience of his government’s cash transfer scheme, India on Thursday reminded him that the size of its economic stimulus package to deal with the coronavirus pandemic is as large as Pakistan’s GDP.
The response by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came hours after Khan, in a series of tweets, offered to share with India Pakistan’s experience of implementing its “successful” cash transfer programme following reports of how poor people in India are battling poverty in view of the coronavirus lockdown.
Khan on Twitter cited a Pakistani news report which said that “nearly 34 per cent households across India would not be able to survive for more than a week without assistance.”
“I am ready to offer help & share our successful cash transfer prog, lauded internationally for its reach & transparency, with India,” Khan tweeted.
Reacting to the tweets, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in an online briefing, “Pakistan is better known for making cash transfers to bank accounts outside the country rather than giving to its own people. Clearly, Imran Khan needs a new set of advisers and better information”.
Srivastava further said that everyone knows about Pakistan’s debt problem, which is almost 90 per cent of its GDP, and how much they have pressed for debt restructuring.
“We all know about their debt problem (almost 90 per cent of GDP) and how much they have pressed for debt restructuring. It would also be better for them to remember that India has a stimulus package, which is as large as Pakistan’s annual GDP,” he said.
In his tweets, Imran Khan has claimed that his government in Pakistan has successfully transferred about Rs 120 billion in nine weeks to over 10 million families in a “transparent manner” to deal with the fallout of COVID-19 on the poor.
Besides being jibed at by the MEA spokesperson, Khan was also mocked widely by Indians and Pakistanis on social media.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package for various key sectors to deal with the adverse impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.