Prime Minister Shehbaz pledged economic transformation, linking national security to economic stability.
ISLAMABAD: (APP) Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has reiterated the government’s determination to change the economic scenario of Pakistan and said that the country’s national security is directly related to economic security.
Addressing the 26th National Security Workshop of the Defense University, the Prime Minister said that if we are economically strong, our exports are growing rapidly, the industrial sector is expanding…….so our economic security is automatically our main security. will strengthen
Underscoring the government’s commitment to implement a comprehensive “Charter of Economy”, the Prime Minister said that in 2018, as Leader of the Opposition, he had also proposed the idea of a Charter of Economy and now “we will implement this idea”. All ready to wear.”
The Prime Minister emphasized the need for privatization of all state-owned enterprises (SOEs), saying the government should go out of business. “The government’s mandate is only to facilitate private businesses.”
“We should completely liquidate the business to save trillions of rupees,” he said, adding that all institutions are on the same page and he and the army chief are fully united on the issue.
Briefing the audience on the strong performance of the Pakistan Stock Exchange, which crossed 100,000 points on Thursday, the Prime Minister said it was the result of team efforts and close coordination between the federal government and various stakeholders. “It is also about business sentiment and we believe that Pakistan is slowly moving in the right direction.”
He said that due to what happened the day before yesterday in Islamabad, the stock market saw a sharp fall of about 4000 points, but he said that as soon as the situation returned to normal, the market picked up in the next day or two and 100,000 Crossed the points which was never done before. History of Pakistan
The Prime Minister said that it is a fact that the economic growth spanning more than a decade worsened instead of slowing down due to various factors.
He said that the country is still facing many challenges. “We all know that in June 2023 it was touch and go because Pakistan was on the verge of default for various reasons that we all know.”
The Prime Minister highlighted that the government was able to pull the economy out of crisis due to the successful standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
However, he said that the program will cause more hardship to the people but the government has no choice.
He also expressed hope and prayed to Allah that this would be the last program with the IMF.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the country has seen many wonderful economic projects in a period of 76 years but failed due to lack of determination.
He said that the government is preparing a domestic development plan which will be fully implemented. “I will do my best with my colleagues to implement this plan in true sense and transform the economic landscape of Pakistan.”
Apart from economic challenges, the Prime Minister said that the country is also facing security challenges. He said that nearly 80 thousand people sacrificed their lives in the war against terrorism and economic losses reached 130 billion dollars.
Terrorism was completely defeated during the reign of Nawaz Sharif, but this monster has once again come to the fore and is showing its hideous face as sad events were happening day by day.
Expressing grief, he said, “What happened in Parachinar a few days ago, innocent people lost their lives on both sides.”
The prime minister said that Islamabad was attacked and thousands of people were marching with guns to create all kinds of uncertainty and chaos which they really wanted to destroy the government’s tireless efforts to stabilize the country’s economy.
He vowed to secure the country’s future with the cooperation of all stakeholders. We have to move forward together and this can only happen through unity of action.
During the question-and-answer session, the Prime Minister said that unless we take a quantum leap in economic development, external debt cannot be in a vacuum.
He said that we have to generate our own resources to get rid of external debt.
Regarding the challenge of internal debt, the Prime Minister said that the biggest problem is the power sector because the circular debt of electricity has touched two and a half trillion rupees and the circular debt of gas is also increasing due to leakage, management and system flaws. . and theft.
“We are trying to resolve these issues but it will take time.”
Expressing regret on the issue of tax evasion, the Prime Minister said that tax evasions worth trillions of rupees are being reported which must be stopped.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan, Economic Affairs Minister Ahad Khan Cheema, Privatization Minister Aleem Khan and Information Minister Ataullah Tarar were also present on the occasion.
