Farrukh Saleem reveals he regularly attended PM House meetings till Dec 24

Dr Farrukh Saleem, who was supposed to be appointed as the government’s spokesperson on economy in October 2018, has revealed he regularly attended meetings at the Prime Minister House up until December 24. 

Saleem, who appeared on a talk show at a private news channel, said he was never informed over the past three months that he was not a government spokesperson, and that he was shocked to find out he was never appointed in the first place. 

“There was no communication of this. I attended all the meetings including the last one held on December 24, under Prime Minister Imran Khan. All the meetings happened at the Prime Minister’s Office,” Saleem said.

Earlier this week, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry claimed Saleem was never appointed as the government’s spokesperson on economy.

“Clarification is needed Saleem Farrukh is not spokesperson of the government. We ought to have appointed Dr sahib government’s spokesperson on economy but later it transpired that PM office has banned any hirings so his appointment could never transpire. He is free to have any opinion,” Fawad had tweeted.

The minister's tweet came in reply to Saleem’s comment on the state of the country’s economy, where he had said that the government did not know what it was doing and had no plans to fix the economy.

“We need to find an alternative solution to this rather than taking aid from different countries. The government is not curing the disease, but hiding the symptoms. The results of devaluing rupee are not good. Despite a 30 percent devaluation of the rupee, our exports are still on the decline,” Saleem had said.

We have to consider an alternative strategy,” he had suggested while being referred to as the government’s spokesperson on economic affairs by the media.