‘Our stimulus package as big as Pak GDP’: India on Imran Khan’s offer to help

Taking to Twitter, Pakistan PM Imran Khan Thursday said that he is ready to offer help and share Pakistan's cash transfer program with India to help the country in tackling the ramifications of Covid-19 on the poor.

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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (AP)

Hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s offer to help with cash transfer technology to aid the poor during the coronavirus pandemic, India on Thursday said that the size of India’s stimulus package is as large as Pakistan’s GDP.

Replying to questions at an online briefing, Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, “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, “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 (Pakistan) to remember that India has a stimulus package which is as large as Pakistan’s annual GDP.”

Acc to this report, 34% of households across India will not be able to survive for more than a week without add assistance. I am ready to offer help & share our successful cash transfer prog, lauded internationally for its reach & transparency, with India.https://t.co/CcvUf6wERM

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) June 11, 2020

Earlier on Thursday, Khan had tweeted a news report highlighting the suffering of a section of the poor in India due to economic challenges posed by the coronavirus outbreak and stated that his government is willing to help with its “successful cash transfer programme”, which he claimed is recognised internationally.

Referring to the news, Khan tweeted, “Acc [according] to this report, 34% of households across India will not be able to survive for more than a week without add [additional] assistance. I am ready to offer help & share our successful cash transfer prog, lauded internationally for its reach & transparency, with India.”

Shubhajit Roy

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

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