MEA 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. (Courtesy: Twitter/ ANI)

India’s stimulus package as large as Pakistan’s GDP: India reacted sharply to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s offer to share the experience of Pak government’s cash transfer scheme to its citizens, as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) reminded the former cricketer that the size of India’s economic stimulus package to deal with the coronavirus pandemic was as large as Pakistan’s annual GDP.

MEA’s response came hours after Pakistan PM Imran Khan took to Twitter and offered to share Pakistan’s experience of implementing its “successful cash transfer programme” with India. Khan’s tweets were aimed at reports in media that the poor people in India were facing hardships due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Responding to Imran Khan in an online media briefing, MEA 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,”

“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 to remember that India has a stimulus package, which is as large as Pakistan’s annual GDP,” he added.

In a series of tweets, Imran Khan said that in order to deal with the fallout of COVID-19 on the poor, the Pakistani government had successfully transferred 120 billion Pakistani rupees in nine weeks to over 10 million families in Pakistan in a “transparent manner”.

He further tweeted saying that he was ready to offer help and share Pakistan’s “successful cash transfer programme, lauded internationally for its reach and transparency, with India”.