Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar on Thursday urged opposition and other political parties not to politicize national economy stabilized due to consistent efforts of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Addressing a news conference, the minister recalled the initiatives taken by PM Shehbaz Sharif led government during its previous tenure of 16 months.
He was flanked by Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Romina Khursheed Alam. The minister gave credit to PM Shehbaz Sharif for successful negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that resulted into a standby agreement with the fund in the recent past. He said such initiatives had ultimately stabilized rupee against dollar and brought an improvement in the exchange rate subsequently. The minister recalled the hardships faced by the exporters in the recent past due to the fast fluctuation in the exchange rate especially stemmed from the wrong economic policies of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led government.
“There should be no politics on the economy and everyone should play their due role for economic stability,” Tarar said while highlighting the positive indicators recorded with the arrival of PM Shehbaz Sharif’s government in the country.
He said Bloomberg had forecast a significant reduction in inflation in the country next year and simultaneously predicted an economic growth for Pakistan in the coming days. The country moving in right direction as the economy had started to boom which was reflected from the positive economic indicators, the minister noted. He lauded the role played by the media in creating awareness among the masses regarding privatization process of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) that recorded Rs 80 billion annual loss. It was the common man who had been bearing the brunt of such economic losses, he said, expressing the hope that the privatization would not only generate revenue for the country but also remove extra burden from the common man. He said entire focus was laid on economy and efforts were underway to digitalize the Federal Board of Revenue. Tarar said PM Shehbaz Sharif attached great importance to Pakistan-China friendship and he himself visited Dasu and met the Chinese engineers to express solidarity with them over the attack. He said that the entire nation was united for the betterment of the economy and national interest. The minister asked the people to have hope and faith in the system and the leadership that could solve every other problem. “Shehbaz Sharif is a name of hope who has delivered in the past in accordance with the aspiration of people.” The action plan would be announced very soon to empower the youth, he said in response to another query.
In response to another question, he said that the problems of sports bodies would be resolved as a committee was being formed regarding the Pakistan Hockey Federation. With reference to Pak-Iran gas pipeline project, the Minister said that there was no discussion about it in the cabinet meeting today.
