Islamabad, January 23, 2022 (PPI-OT):Prime Minister Imran Khan says his party would complete its current tenure and also return to government in the next term, owing to tackling of historic and huge economic challenges.
During the fifth session of live “Aap Ka Wazir Azam Aap Key Sath’ programme, he said public would not come out on the streets to save the corruption of opposition parties’ leaders. Prime Minister Imran Khan has reiterated his resolve of not giving any NRO to those who have plundered the wealth of Pakistan.
The Prime Minister said opposition cannot blackmail to get an NRO from me. He said giving them an NRO will be a treachery to Pakistan and he will not allow this. He said he cannot give an NRO to criminals and dacoits. He said some media elements are spreading disappointment and hopelessness through fake news and negative propaganda.
Quoting report of the World Bank, Imran Khan said inflation is reducing in the country, while economy is growing by 5.37 percent, despite Covid-19 pandemic. He said construction sector is booming in the country. He said banks have received applications for housing loans worth 290 billion rupees and around 140 billion rupees have been given to the applicants, which shows public’s trust in government’s policies. He said 45,000 housing units are under construction, while the private sector is building three million houses in its 342 projects. He said 30 industries are directly linked with the construction sector, which are getting benefit of this boom.
Talking about the agriculture sector, Imran Khan said the country has witnessed a record production of wheat, sugarcane, rice, and maize, which resulted into income of 73 percent to the farmer’s community. He said that every family in the rural or agriculture sector received an additional income of around 165,000 rupees.
He said large scale manufacturing witnessed a record increase of 10 percent, while vehicles, tractors, and motorcycles showed record sale due to prudent economic policies of the government. He said corporate sector earned a profit of 930 billion rupees. He said tax collection recorded over six thousand billion rupees, exports 31 billion dollars, and foreign remittances over 30 billion dollars. He said all the economic indicators show that the economy is performing well and the media should refrain from spreading uncertainty in the society.
Replying to a caller, Imran Khan urged the people to strictly observe wearing of masks at public places to prevent spread of Omicron virus. He, however, made it clear that the government is not thinking of closing our businesses as it will adversely affect our poor people. Answering a caller, the Prime Minister said inflation is a worldwide phenomenon and Pakistan is not an exception. He said it should be kept in view that our government inherited the biggest current account deficit of 20 billion dollars of Pakistan’s history and we have to focus on stabilizing the economy. He said as a result of stabilizing efforts, dollar’s value went up, which caused higher prices of imported items. Secondly, Covid-19 pandemic created supply shortage.
The Prime Minister said the situation in Afghanistan also led to flight of dollar from Pakistan, which further aggravated the inflation in the country. He said to mitigate the sufferings of the common people, the government launched health card scheme under which holder of the card can get medical treatment upto one million rupees.
He said this card will change the entire health system in Pakistan as the private sector will be encouraged to build hospitals in rural areas because the health card holders are entitled to get medical treatment from private hospitals as well along with government hospitals. The Prime Minister assured that the country will come out of the inflation crisis as it successfully handled the Covid-19 pandemic. He also urged the media to do balance reporting on the issue of inflation.
The Prime Minster said that the government is working to remove difference between powerful and the weak segments of the society in implementing the law. He stressed the need of collective efforts of the society against corrupt elements and criminals ensuring role of law in the country.
He said that unfortunately our opposition leader addresses in the parliament levelling baseless allegation on the government but does not answer about allegations against him on corruption of 16 billion rupees in Ramadan Sugar Mills. He said now the opposition is attempting to take people to streets against the government, but it should keep in mind that public will not come out to protect corruption of political leaders.
Imran Khan dispense of justice is impossible until bring the privileged under the rule of law. He said the judiciary should conduct day-to-day hearing of corruption cases to take them to a logical conclusion. He vowed to bring reforms to the criminal-justice system in cooperation with the judiciary to prevent mafias getting unnecessary stay-orders.
Responding to a questioner, Imran Khan said the government is making all out efforts to document the economy to broaden the tax net. He said the government has compiled the detail of luxury vehicles and houses and their owners should honestly pay their taxes. He said every citizen will have to pay taxes to take the country forward on the path the development and prosperity.
Replying to a caller, the Prime Minister said the government has reserved 47 billion rupees for educational scholarships to be awarded on merit. Answering a query about PTI’s unsatisfactory performance in recently held local bodies’ elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Imran Khan said that some mistakes were committed in those elections and he has constituted a committee to look into that matter.
It is pertinent to mention that Prime Minister Imran Khan has so far held four public sessions in which he responded to 86 questions asked by the public. Out of the total 86 queries, 74 questions were asked through phone calls, while 12 queries were received on social media.
Public participation in the Aap Ka Wazir-e-Azam – Aap Kay Saath programme was categorized as Punjab 47 percent, Islamabad 15 percent, overseas 11 percent, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seven percent each, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan 2.4 percent each and Balochistan 2.8 percent.
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Email: info@moib.gov.pk
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