Govt to serve people without any discrimination, assures PM Shahbaz Sharif

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday assured that their coalition government will serve the people without any discrimination.

A day after 33 ministers and three advisers took charge of their offices, the prime minister chaired his maiden meeting of the federal cabinet where the members were briefed on the economic condition, energy and law and order situation in the country.

Addressing the members after the meeting, PM Shahbaz Sharif said that the government will make decisions in the best interest of the nation. He assured that the federal cabinet will work together to resolve the issues of unemployment and rising inflation in Pakistan.

Shahbaz congratulated the ministers for ousting former prime minister Imran Khan.

He maintained that the current cabinet has experienced members who have made great sacrifices in the past. “I want to thank the leadership [of all coalition parties] for giving you [cabinet members] this responsibility,” he said, suggesting they work hard to meet the expectations of the public.

“We have to cope with challenges like poverty, unemployment and inflation as the previous government failed miserably in its fight against hardships,” PM Shahbaz reiterated.

The prime minister stressed it is only through hard work that we can bring improvement in situations and register successes. He said the country is caught in a debt trap and we have to steer it out of it and save the economy.

PM Shahbaz said his cabinet is composed of extremely capable and experienced members, expressing the confidence that they will bring to use their best of abilities to serve the masses and live up to their expectations.

He expressed his firm commitment to address the problems faced by the federating units, especially Balochistan province.

Miftah Ismail’s name removed from ECL

During its meeting today, the federal cabinet approved a summary seeking the removal of Federal Minister of Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail’s name from the exit control list (ECL), Geo News reported simultaneously, citing sources.

The sources said that the federal cabinet approved the summary presented by the ECL committee following which it will take decisions regarding the addition and removal of names from the exit list after reviewing the terms of reference (TORs).

They further added that the finance minister will leave for Washington tonight to engage with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the seventh review of the stalled programme. State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Reza Baqir has also reached Washington for the parleys.

The cabinet, sources said, also approved forming a four-member committee for the ECL, which will comprise federal ministers Ayaz Sadiq, Azam Nazeer Tarrar, Naveed Qamar, and Murtaza Mehmood.

The committee will be responsible to make changes and overview other matters regarding the list, the sources added.

Meanwhile, the federal cabinet also replaced Sanaullah Abbasi with Rai Tahir as the new director-general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

— Additional input from Radio Pakistan