The political battle began in the federal capital today as opposition leaders met at a five star hotel on the invitation of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for a much hyped multi-parties gathering to devise an anti-government strategy.

The meeting was attended by the heads and representatives of 12 opposition parties incuding PML-N, National Party (NP), Awami National Party (ANP), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) and Jamiatul Hadees. However, Jamaat-i-Islaami had decided to distance itself from the gathering. Among other opposition leaders, who made it to the venue are Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif, Maulana Fazl ur Rehman, Mehmood Achakzai, Mohsin Dawar, Amir Haider Khan Hoti, and other opposition leaders.

The meeting was kick started with a virtual opening address from the former president Asif Ali Zardari, proceeded by a virtual address by deposed premier Nawaz Sharif. Both Nawaz and Zardari are currently facing major corruption and money laundering cases. Zardari is out on bail on medical grounds while Nawaz has non-bailable arrests out to his name.

PPP's chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif also addressed the gathering. The main theme of the conference was to devise a strategy to fight against the 'parallel government who brought in the PTI's government'.

A number of statements related to the economy, CPEC, government handling of COVID-19 and other on-going issues were made. We have fact checked some of these statements as follow:

Former premier and PML-N supremo in his address alleged that under the current leadership CPEC has been delayed and treated like Peshawar BRT.

Fact: Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Amb Yao Jing, in an interview with Pakistan Today on Sept 20, said that he did not feel that were any challenges to the progress of CPEC because it was proceeding in a timely fashion. Also, 2020 has been dubbed the most exciting year yet for CPEC as a number of projects are now operational.

Sharif also implied that no new development projects have been started by the PTI government.

Fact: The PTI government has launched a number of development projects ranging from infrastructure to improvement health and education. In the FY20 budget, Pakistan has substantially increased anti-poverty spending through the PM Ehsas Program. The government has also launched infrastructure development projects in metropolitans with the recent approval of a PKR100 billion project for road projects in Rawalpindi. PTI also started the construction on Mohmand Dam and Diamer-Bhasha Dam.

Nawaz commented on how economic growth has dropped below 0

Fact:The growth rate for Pakistan’s economy has not dropped below zero. It was at .99% for FY2019, the decrease in growth was inline with a troubled world economy with many nations experiencing a slow down. Pakistan has never had a negative GDP growth rate in it’s history. FY2020 may prove to be an exception but the Coronavirus pandemic is the clear reason behind it.

PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif claimed that wheat was never imported into Pakistan before the PTI government.

Fact:Pakistan has a long history of importing wheat. In the late 1990’s we became largely independent of importing wheat however the trend continued until 2010. Wheat import in FY2014 stood at 740,000MT which is much higher then the 100,000 MT currently imported in FY2020.

PPP's chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari alleged that the prime minister left people alone amid recent destruction caused by flood and unprecedented rain.

Fact: Prime Minister announced a Rs1,100 billion Karachi transformation package for the flood affected Karachi. Prime Minister announced this massive package after a meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Governor Imran Ismail and provincial MPAs. The federal government will contribute 62 percent of the total package. Khan also formed a committee consisting of federal, provincial and NDMA representatives to tackle problems related to flood and rain.