New Delhi/Islamabad: The government on Thursday derided Pakistan's 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.
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.
Khan was not only mocked widely by Indians and Pakistanis on social media, but the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Anurag Srivastava, too took a jibe at Pakistan. "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," he said.
Srivastava 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. "It would also be better for them to remember that India has a stimulus package, which is as large as Pakistan's annual GDP," Srivastava said pithily. Khan has claimed that his government in Pakistan has transferred about $1 billion to at least 10 million families within nine weeks through what he calls a successful and transparent process.
