Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called upon all stakeholders to sign unanimous charters of economy and democracy to agree on single point agenda — how to lift the country out of prevailing challenges.
"No difficulty can hinder the progress of country “if we all sit together and end our differences,” the PM said while addressing a ceremony in Islamabad on Saturday.
The PM went on to say that in spite of having trillions of dollars’ worth mineral resources, Pakistan’s economy has been dependent on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout packages.
“India has not gone to the IMF since 1991, how many times have we gone,” PM Shehbaz lamented.
PM Shehbaz said the government had to “beg” for IMF bailout package as it had become inevitable to avert the looming default.
He added that thought the country has successfully averted the default threat, the IMF’s stand-by agreement should be treated as a breather to put the economy on the path of sustainable growth.
“Lets [sign] a charter of economy. Let’s work together on the charter of democracy,” the PM said asking all stakeholders to bury the hatchet to work for the betterment of the country.
Earlier today, the prime minister urged the people to consider the facts involving “pathetic and poor performance of corruption tainted government of Pakistan Teheek-e-Insaf (PTI) with that of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) which has always been the pioneer of mega development projects”.
He was addressing a ceremony after stone laying of different significant development projects which included 19kms long Lahore bypass linking Kala Shah Kaku with Lahore-Karachi Motorway at a cost of Rs35 billion.
The PM said they would accept public mandate in the upcoming general elections and if the PML-N under the leadership of its supremo Nawaz Sharif got another opportunity to serve the country, they would restore the real image of Pakistan.
“If the PML-N was in the government during the four years of PTI’s rule, the country would have had a different destiny,” he added.
He also questioned PTI chief Imran Khan claims of recovering $300 billion “plundered wealth” stashed outside Pakistan within ninety days saying the previous government did not get any single penny during its four years in power.
Referring to Rs50 billion amount recovery scandal, he said, the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) had investigated the issue and after out of court settlement with the other party, decided to return the amount to the government exchequer but it did not go to State Bank of Pakistan rather went to the Supreme Court “where Niazi’s government became a party”.
“It was a huge crime as to how the national exchequer was plundered,” he said, adding the BRT Peshawar, Toshakhana, Malam Jabba, sugar scams etc were the other major corruption cases of PTI.
— With additional input from APP