PM vows to cut govt expenses, smash begging bowl

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday vowed to break the begging bowl by curtailing the government’s expenses.

The premier made the remarks while addressing an inaugural and groundbreaking ceremony of eight development projects in the energy and communication sectors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday.

A day earlier, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir had also underscored the need for making the country’s economy self-reliant to end dependence on foreign loans, saying: “All Pakistanis must throw out the begging bowl.”

Addressing the event, PM Shehbaz said despite history’s most difficult period, the coalition government had steered the country out of the economic crisis.

“During the last 16 months, the incumbent government faced the most difficult challenges like the devastating flood that hit the country soon after it took charge of the office,” he added.

The premier said, “We faced the devastating flood on one side, and inflation, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) pressure, and political crisis on the other. Such challenging problems have never been faced by me in my whole life.”

He said all the coalition government parties had unanimously decided to ensure economic stability at all costs, including their politics. Such a resolve on their part helped the government to bring the country out of the crisis, the PM said, adding that there was record wheat production in a decade, which saved billions of dollars.

‘Opposition had wished for the country’s default’

Berating the PTI, the premier said that Imran Khan exploited his own created situation which he used for political gains at the country’s cost.

The PM said political opponents had wished for the country’s default, which by the blessings of the Almighty Allah reverted due to the efforts of the incumbent government.

PM Shehbaz said that had the former regimes fully utilised the country’s rich resources such as hydro power the country might have had affordable and clean energy, and stressed overhaul of the faulty power transmission system causing over Rs400 billion annual losses to the national exchequer.

A comprehensive plan of the Pakistan Green Initiative had been undertaken to take the country to new heights of development and prosperity, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman thanked the prime minister for his personal interest in ensuring the development of the area.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had laid the foundation of many mega projects, which the PTI government seized hampering economic development, he added.

Fazl said industrial estates being established in Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan would change the fate of the people of the area.