The economic performance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has been criticised by Shabbar Zaidi, one of its own highest ranking officials.

In an interview with Geo News’ Shahzeb Khanzada, Zaidi said that Pakistan would have economically collapsed had the PTI government continued.

“Had this […] government continued, the party would not have even secured 5% votes as the country would have economically collapsed,” the former Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) head, appointed with much fanfare at the time by Imran Khan, said on the show.

Accusing the then-Prime Minister of not “listening” to anyone who was offering advice to rectify the government’s shortcomings, Zaidi said that Imran Khan did remove Asad Umar as Finance Minister when told of the government’s poor performance.

He narrated an incident where 40 parliamentarians, led by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, barged into his office after he “mistakenly” sent a tax notice to a landlord in Multan.

He also accused Asad Qaiser, the former Speaker of the National Assembly of preventing the tobacco industry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from being brought into the tax net.

“You cannot do this…you cannot enter our areas,” Qaiser told Zaidi.

Shabbar Zaidi was the head of FBR from 2019 till 2020.