ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Monday called for a national dialogue to redefine the role of the judiciary and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)
“Both are interfering in the matters of the Executive and it has become very difficult for the government to carry out its day-to-day functions,” the prime minister told a press conference. He said the next government needs to take up this matter and debate it thoroughly to arrive at a decision.
The prime minister said the country would have achieved the highest growth rate but the politics of sit-ins, Panama issue and the July 28 verdict by Supreme Court brought instability to the economy.”When there is instability, it always negatively impacts the economy,” he said.
To a question, he said the elections would be held on time. “Under constitutional provisions, general elections are to be held within 60 days of the completion of tenure by an elected government,” he said, expressing satisfaction that a consensus nominee has been picked to lead the interim set-up.
About merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the prime minister said it was a continuing process and the new government would make financial allocations for the region. The parliament played its part and all the political parties showed their commitment to the issue, he added.
While presenting an overview of the economic indicators during the past five years, the prime minister said the figures clearly reflected successful policies of the PML-N government and its dynamic vision that helped the country’s economy to grow significantly. In a detailed presentation on how the government improved its performance in almost all the sectors that showed a positive growth, the prime minister said the rate of inflation and employment has dropped over the years while industrial growth improved from 0.75% to 5.8%.
The prime minister said the PML-N would be forming the next government and would bring about further improvement in the economy. He specifically mentioned the income tax reforms and said these landmark achievements were aimed at further improving the economy of the country while broadening the tax base to bring into the net all those who till now had managed to evade the applicable taxes.
He said large-scale manufacturing also grew from 5.89% whereas agriculture attained13 years high growth rate of 3.81% and the GDP reached to 5.79%.
The prime minister, enumerating the basic figures of economy achieved during the five-year tenure, said the large scale manufacturing grew by 5.89% while construction sector witnessed a growth rate of 9.13% and the services sector achieved 6.1% growth. He said the export sector had been facing challenges but in the last six month, it had reached to $ 20.6 billion while the country’s imports touched a figure of $45.6billion.”The overseas workers remittances remained at $ 16.2 billion. The foreign direct investment reached to $ 2.24 billion whereas the total investment stood around Rs 5.65 trillion. The allocation for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) had been increased to Rs 121 billion. About 8349 companies were incorporated during 2017-18,” he said.
About foreign borrowing, the prime minister said it is a common practice among all the governments as for attaining the high growth rate, such practices are adopted.
Meanwhile, addressing a public gathering after inaugurating the Gojra-Toba Tek Singh section of Faisalabad-Multan Motorway (M-4) and Sharqpur-Rajana Section of M-3 Motorway in Rajana village of Toba Tek Singh, the prime minister said the national development and strong economy were linked only with democracy as during years-long dictatorship, there had been no sign of progress in the country. “Wherever you go throughout the country, you would find development projects worth hundreds of billions of rupees, which were envisioned by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif,” he said.
He told the gathering that the people had given their verdict in 2013 elections and they bore the fruit of their decision in the form of national development. He said it was pleasing to note that in this constituency, there was not even a single village without gas supply, and added that some of the localities in his constituency were yet without gas supply for being hilly area.
The prime minister said as the government had laid the basis for national development, the country was not now concerned of load shedding or terrorism rather it was now on its journey of development and its openness to China and Central Asia.
The prime minister said on July 25, the people would have to make another decision through their vote in the general elections. He said as the PML-N always carried out politics of respect and public service, so it would be easy for the people to decide.
He said as the elections were approaching, many people would come up with different slogans but, interestingly, the PML-N had already executed the works such people had been calling for.
Published in Daily Times, May 29th 2018.
