-Says Pakistan’s increasing remittances show economic progress
-Discusses mutual cooperation with Aussie counterpart
By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday has said despite the Coronavirus pandemic, there is another good news for our economy. In a tweet, he said remittances from overseas Pakistanis rose to $2.3billion in the month of September this year, which is thirty-one percent higher than last September and nine percent higher than August this year.
PM Imran Khan said this marks the fourth consecutive month that remittances have remained above two billion dollars. Remittances from overseas Pakistanis rose to $2,768 million in July this year, the highest ever level of remittances in a single month in Pakistan.
According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) report, the remittances showed an increase of $740mn (or 36.5pc) over last July and an increase of $302mn (or 12.2pc) over June 2020.
Earlier, Scheduled high level meeting with the Prime Minister Imran Khan in chair, to discuss an action plan to bring down the prices in the country, has been deferred till Tuesday evening.
The Prime Minister has decided to get feedback on likely role of the Tiger Force in the plan and summoned Special Assistant Usman Dar for a meeting, sources said. Dar is expected to present a road map to mobilize the Tiger Force in his meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan. The prime minister has also called chief secretaries of provinces and his economic team to discuss the matter.
According to sources, the prime minister has also summoned recommendations from the chief ministers. Federal government is expected to approve and announce the action plan in view of the recommendations from provinces against price hike and hoarding of the commodities. Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday announced to initiate action against price hike and hoarding across the country.
He 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.
He had also decided to use the services of volunteers of Tiger Force for the identification of hoarders.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan in a telephonic conversation on Monday with his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison expressed his wish to commence a cricket series between the two countries while they deliberated over the mutual relations. The two leaders discussed at length the global situation in the backdrop of the pandemic COVID-19 and mulled over the ways to control its spread and adverse effects.
The prime ministers talked about the economic woes aggravated by COVID-19 outbreak and discussed augmenting the mutual cooperation between the countries by investing in the sectors of common interest. PM Khan assured his counterpart of the number of economic sectors where the potential to enhance mutual collaboration is very likely. The Pakistani premier said with the situation on the ground recovering with pandemic control, the revival of cricket can be considered between Australia and Pakistan as well which will aid in fostering strong ties.
Moreover, PM Imran Khan further enlightened his counterpart on the contribution of Pakistan in the Afghan peace process, as underway via Intra-Afghan peace talks in Qatar, and underscored the critical importance, for the entire region, of these talks to materialize.
The Pakistani head of state elaborated on the importance of Afghan peace talks particularly for Pakistan as well.
