-Premier says all resources to be used to bring down skyrocketing prices
-Asks Tiger Force volunteers to report daily commodities’’ prices on portal
-Confirms next Saturday meeting with Tiger Force
By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has asked the volunteers of the Tiger Force to regularly check the prices of basic commodities like flour, sugar, ghee and lentils in their localities.
In a tweet on Sunday, the prime minister asked the volunteers to post the prices on Tiger Force Portal. He said that he will meet with the Tiger Force volunteers on next Saturday at Convention Centre in Islamabad. He added that he will provide guidance and tasks to youngsters according to the government’s action plan.
The premier said that his government will use all the resources at disposal of the state to bring down skyrocketing prices of essential food items in the country from Monday. According to the details, the government has decided to use all resources against inflation in the country.
PM Imran has decided to once again use the services of volunteers of Tiger Force for the identification of hoarders and consultations with Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs (SAPM) Usman Dar have been completed.
Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said the creation of a conducive atmosphere for the youth in modern fields was a must to make them contribute to the national development.
Chairing a meeting to discuss the promotion of information technology (IT) in the country, the prime minister said the youth and educated people had immense potential to excel in the IT sector. Punjab Higher Education Minister Raja Yasir Humayun, National Information Technology Board Chairman Syed Shabahat Ali Shah, Information Technology University (ITU) Vice Chancellor Dr Sarfaraz Khurshid, Punjab Information Technology Board Chairman Azfar Manzoor, Amir Hashmi and Shabahat Rafiq attended the meeting. The meeting discussed the promotion of IT sector, particularly the measures to utilize the youth’s capabilities in the global chip design industry.
The prime minister, in his remarks, said the IT sector faced neglect in the past but despite that the country’s youth made distinction. However, he said, the incumbent government was resolved to assist every sector.
He directed the NITB chairman to present a roadmap and a comprehensive strategy on the proposals for uplifting the IT sector.
Also, With 2.8 million people approaching Pakistan Citizen’s Portal (PCP) through smart phones or internet for redressal of their complaints, Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed for the provision of manual complaint lodging facility to people belonging to remote rural areas having no smart phones or internet access. The facility of complaint lodging manually would be provided to those who have neither smart phones nor internet access; unable to read/write; physically challenged; women/widows and elderly/ senior citizens; whose destination of service delivery or issue dealing office far away etc.
In that respect, Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) has also been directed to convene briefing session for all focal persons and also launch public awareness campaign through PTV, Radio Pakistan and other private media channels and social media platforms, a press release issued by PMDU here on Thursday said. PCP was being used as a tool to promote citizen centric participatory governance.
On one side, it provides a nation-wide window to connect people with government organizations for raising their issues while on the other side, it helps promote the culture of quantified performance management and make the various government entities accountable for their mandated roles and responsibilities.
It also helps the policy makers to identity policy gaps and grey areas in the service delivery regime for timely intervention and improvement
Since October 2018, PCP has been successfully providing remote connectivity with government authorities to a large number of people in the country.
It has proved as a vibrant tool for raising issues pertaining to governance and service delivery.
Initially, complaint lodging was possible through smart phones while web-based version of PCP and holding of Khuli Kachehris by 24 Federal Organizations have recently been added to enhance users access.
Despite limited number of smart phone users in the country, still 2.8 million have registered on the system in the last two years.
Prior to launching of the system, the prime minister had desired during a briefing held on 16-10-2018 that all available options shall be explored whereby access to all segments of the society could be ensured.
It was desired that besides smart phones and web-based accessibility to PCP, people who were either illiterate or belonging to remote rural areas or have no smart phones or internet access should also be catered for.
In view of the above, the prime minister has directed that all officers having PCP-dashboards shall, besides processing their own complaints, provide manually complaint lodging facility from their respective dashboards to the people of respective localities.
On the other hand, The proposed National Policy on Small and Medium Enterprises 2020 was presented to Prime Minister Imran Khan here on Thursday, aimed at promotion of the sector across the country.
The Prime Minister, who chaired a meeting of National Coordination Committee for SMEs,
was given a detailed briefing on the salient features of the proposed policy.
He directed the Minister for Industries to finalize the roadmap based on timelines for implementation of the proposed SME policy in consultation with provinces at the earliest.
Prime Minister Imran Khan stressed upon the federal departments and provincial governments to pay special attention to the development of SMEs.
He said the government was committed to extend all possible facilities to SMEs including simplification of rules and regulations, provision of credit, facilitation of tax system and facilitation of business. The Prime Minister said providing job opportunities to youth, increasing exports and wealth creation was the top priority of the government. Development of SMEs played a key role in achieving these three targets, he added.
He said during the last 10 years, SMEs were completely neglected that left a negative impact on national economy. The meeting was attended by Minister for Industries Muhammad Hammad Azhar, Adviser Dr Ishrat Hussain, federal secretaries and other senior officials. The Governor State Bank of Pakistan and the Provincial Chief Secretary attended the meeting through video-link.
