Country to sink if FBR, power sector not rid of graft: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned on Friday if the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and power sector were not purged of corruption, the country could sink.

Addressing the federal cabinet meeting here, he said the country would come out of crises after the government succeeds in making the energy sector and FBR efficient and free of corruption, adding the government was aware of people’s hardships.

He warned that there should be no politics on the complicated and sensitive issue of IPPs [independent power producers]. He said cheaper electricity for people was on the top of the government and its allies’ agenda and several measures had been taken in that regard in the last few months. “It is a complicated issue and any politics on it tantamount to an insult to people,” the PM claimed. He said the government was making efforts day and night to resolve the issues pertaining to electricity.

He said the government was also working on the IPPs issue and soon it would be resolved. He pointed out that some private IPPs had paid off their loans and others were doing so. “We have also written letters to China and also talked to the Chinese president for shifting their IPPs from imported coal to local coal,” he added.

The PM informed the cabinet that Rs50 billion subsidy had been given to provide relief to consumers using up to 200 units per month, while the government was considering measures to give relief to those consuming up to 500 units monthly. Moreover, he said, he had also given 10-day relaxation to consumers for payment of their electricity bills. He recalled that the last government of Nawaz Sharif put an end to up to 20-hour loadshedding and under CPEC, four LNG power generation plants had been established to generate 5,000-MW electricity. “We had installed cheapest power generation plants and we are making sincere efforts in this regard again,” he added.

He questioned as to how many power plants were established by the government of a particular party in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in the last 10 years. “It is easy to make tall claims but hard to take practical steps,” he said, adding that those who uttered words like ‘absolutely not’ had only damaged diplomatic relations with other countries.

Shehbaz alleged that billions of rupees were wasted on tube-wells installation under the head of electricity expenses in Balochistan. However, now the government was spending Rs70 billion to convert tube-wells to solar energy. “Those staging sit-in were also raising voice for people, but it is politics for the sake of politics,” he added.

The PM said the incumbent and caretaker government took effective measures to stop electricity theft and, in this connection, the army chief’s resolve was very categorical. “We should make joint efforts and all institutions should work within the ambit of Constitution,” he added.

He pointed out that the Punjab and Sindh provinces were also supporting the federal government’s efforts to stop electricity theft, saying that solution to problems of the country lies in whole of the government approval. He said there was a dire need for increasing the tax net, but imposition of more taxes on already taxed segment was not justified. In this connection, he said he was aware of increase in taxes on the salaried class. “We are fully aware of problems of masses and we will have to work on short- and long-term measures to achieve objectives,” he added.

The federal cabinet approved a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance trade between China and Pakistan. The decision was made on the recommendation of Ministry of Commerce. The MoU was aimed at boosting bilateral trade with focus on several key areas such as smart phone production, new energy vehicles, textiles, agricultural product processing, pharmaceutical manufacturing and information technology.

The cabinet also okayed the enactment of legislation concerning the charter of National University of Modern Languages, on the recommendation of Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training.

The cabinet also approved the bill for establishing King Hammad University of Nursing and Associated Medical Sciences being established in cooperation with Bahrain on the recommendation of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training.

The report of inter-ministerial committee formed on missing persons was submitted to the federal cabinet. The report said that after the Afghan war, Pakistan was gripped by terrorism. Pakistan was facing many internal challenges due to terrorism. The commission on missing persons was working for the last one decade. PM Shehbaz Sharif, during his last stint in power, had constituted an all parties committee on missing persons. The forum was told that the interim government had also constituted a committee and law enforcement agencies also cooperated in preparing the report.

The cabinet endorsed the July 22, 2024 decisions of the cabinet committee on state owned enterprises. The cabinet also approved a package of Rs5 million for family of each missing person as part of its efforts to provide legal and financial assistance to the heirs of missing persons.

Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told the media that cabinet discussed the issue of missing persons and approved the support package. He said two reports about the missing persons were presented before the cabinet on Friday, adding the cabinet also approved the constitution of a special committee to examine genuine cases of families in need of support after reviewing the final report of committees. He said the new committee would address the problems being faced by the missing persons’ families.

The assistance announced on Friday was not a remuneration, he clarified, adding it was an attempt by the government to share the grief of missing persons’ families and solve their problems. The law minister said that there were a lot of “complicated” reasons behind the issue of missing persons, adding the government had taken strict measures to resolve the issue and most of the cases had been tackled through the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CoIED).

The government is committed to resolving all issues of missing persons by tapping into all resources, Tarar added. The law minister claimed last month that “only 23pc of missing persons cases are pending”, adding that 10,200 cases of missing persons were registered in the CoIED out of which around 8,000 cases have been addressed.

The information minister said that in 2011, the Supreme Court had formed an inquiry commission on the missing persons, which out of 10,023 cases sorted out 7,900 cases, and now 23pc of those cases were pending.

In its report presented in January this year, the missing person’s inquiry commission said that KP reported 3,485 cases of missing persons, making it the highest number in the country. Causalities in drone attacks and spike in militancy were the key reasons behind the disappearances, as per the report. In Balochistan, 2,752 cases related to enforced disappearance were lodged, the commission had said, adding that besides other reasons, fleeing abroad without informing their families due to the situation in the province was among the causes of these cases.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has tasked his finance team to work out options as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) government is reportedly considering easing income tax for the salaried class, Geo News reported, citing sources within the finance ministry.

The development came as the coalition government comes under increasing pressure amid the ongoing sit-in by the Jamaat-e-Islam (JI) in Rawalpindi against inflated electricity bills and high taxes.

Addressing the federal cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the coalition government’s agenda was to reduce electricity bills to provide relief to the masses. However, he stressed that the issue should not be politicised. The official sources told Geo News the coalition government is mulling different options to reduce direct tax for those salaried individuals earning up to Rs100,000 per month. The sources further said that relief worth Rs40 billion will be provided to salaried individuals falling in the low-income group and added that officials are discussing the option to divert funding from the development budget to provide relief to the salaried class.

The sources said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would also be taken into confidence over the proposed relief.