Country has gone bankrupt: former FBR chairman Shabbar Zaidi

• Government's claims that country is doing very well and great success has been achieved are deceptive, says former FB chairman Shabbar Zaidi.
• Country has gone bankrupt, Zaidi says at Hamdard University.
• Takes to Twitter to say his speech was misreported.

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Shabbar Zaidi, the former chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), has expressed the belief that the country has gone bankrupt and the government's claims, that the country is doing very well, achieving great success and changing, are all wrong.

He shared his thoughts at a recent speech he gave at Hamdard University. But Zaidi later took to Twitter to say that "only three minutes of his speech have been cherry-picked" and circulated. He said he spoke about the solution as well.

Using accounting term "going concern" (which assumes that an entity has no plans to liquidate or reduce the size of its operations in any significant way, as per ACCA Thinkhead) as a reference point for the audience, Zaidi said that he believes the country, at the moment, has gone bankrupt.

Zaidi added that it is better to accept that a country's economy has gone bankrupt and find solutions rather than deceive people by claiming that it is doing well.

However, in a thread of tweets, Zaidi clarified that his words were taken out of context and had been misreported. While agreeing that he did say that there are issues of bankruptcy and going concern, Zaidi pointed out that we must look at the solution too.

"What I said was with a basis & conviction. I only want to say that [the] whole speech is to [be] read and listened," he wrote on Twitter.

It may be recalled that Zaidi served as the FBR chairman in the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan from May 10, 2019 to April 8, 2020.