US always used Pakistan, says PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the United States has always used Pakistan for its purposes. “Whenever the US needed us, they established relations, and Pakistan became a frontline state, and then abandoned it and slapped sanctions on us” when its purposes were served, he regretted.

The premier expressed these views during an interview with Dr Eric Li, the director of the advisory committee of the China Institute at Fudan University. On Pak-US relations, he said there was a time when Pakistan had friendly relations with the US; and when Pakistan was no longer needed, the US distanced itself from it.

Later, he continued, friendly relations between the US and Pakistan were restored and Pakistan became a friend of the United States. “The US helped us at that time, but as soon as the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, the United States imposed sanctions on Pakistan.”

He said that after nine years, when 9/11 happened, US-Pakistan relations got better again. When the US failed in Afghanistan, Pakistan was blamed for the defeat. The PM said Pakistan has not maintained relations with the US as it has with China. China is a friend of Pakistan which has stood the test of time, and Pakistan-China relations have been continuing for 70 years. Pakistan has been with China in every forum and China has supported Pakistan in every need.

During the interview, he dismissed outright the Western countries' suspicion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Gwadar port and said that the projects were a great opportunity for the regional development.

He remarked, “I do not understand why there is suspicion about CPEC and the Gwadar port. “It makes no sense because, as far as Pakistan is concerned, my number one priority is the country's 220 million people.”

He said that almost 25-30 per cent of the country population was living below the poverty line, and Pakistan had suffered greatly due to past corrupt governments and the 'war on terror'. He again said that Pakistan should never have participated in the war. While the US lost 4,000 people in the 20 years since 9/11, Pakistan lost 80,000 people and a loss of over $100 billion to the economy. PM Imran reiterated that the government's top priority was to look after the people and that the emphasis was on geo-economics and added, “We want to build our economy and lift our people out of poverty. Pakistan looked towards China as a role model in this regard.

“We see CPEC and Gwadar as a great opportunity for geo-economics and the initiative is not exclusive to China and Pakistan and other countries are also welcome to invest in CPEC projects”. Commenting on Afghanistan, he said that the US did not study the history of the war-torn country: There is a saying that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. So anyone who understood the history of Afghanistan would never have done what the Americans did.

Premier Imran said he had pointed out from the beginning that the US would not succeed militarily in Afghanistan: First of all, they were never clear on what they were trying to achieve in Afghanistan. Was it nation-building? Was it democracy? Was it liberating the Afghan women? They had no clear aims.

The prime minister said that the US mission was over once Osama Bin Laden was killed, as theoretically they only came to fight al-Qaeda and that the terrorist group was decimated within the first two years of the US invasion. He said that when a country has no clear aims while invading another, it would always result in failure.

He noted secondly, they don't understand the Afghan character. The people of Afghanistan do not accept foreigners in their country as rulers. They do not accept control from the outside. He reiterated that there could not be a military solution to Afghanistan as he was aware of the country's history. PM Imran said that the US generals believed in their firepower and thought they were invincible, but if a people do not want to be ruled, you cannot rule them.

The PM said that the US mission in Afghanistan was based on a false premise, had no clear goals and was never going to succeed. On the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, he said that the US was unable to distinguish between the Taliban government and Afghanistan's 40 million people. He said that a humanitarian crisis was unfolding as the US was sanctioning the Taliban government in an attempt to punish them.

He cautioned that if Afghanistan descends into chaos because of the sanctions ... this will be the biggest man-made human disaster. He emphasised that the world needed to convince the Americans that this was not the way to go about dealing with Afghanistan as chaos would weaken the Taliban government's ability to take on international terrorists such as ISIS.

Imran Khan said: “I believe Pakistan is poor due to corruption, and the country which does not bring the powerful under the rule of law is doomed. My party's manifesto is the rule of law and establishment of welfare state in the country.

“When we formed the government, our priority was to improve relations with India.” PM Imran said that he knew the neighbouring country (India) better than most Pakistanis due to his cricketing career, as he used to play there a lot and received a lot of love and respect from India. “When my government came to power, my first priority was to normalise ties with India and that Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir is the only issue between the two countries.

“However, the current Indian government thought that India belonged only to the Hindus, and in doing so, it is marginalising around 700 million human beings who are now considered second class citizens,” he noted and called it a great tragedy and said that is the reason why India was facing problems from within and with its neighbours. He remarked, “We just hope that better sense prevails because as things are going, I think India will damage itself much more than anyone else”.

Separately, Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday said he had formed the government with big revolutionary ideas for immediate change, but then he realised that the system did not have the capacity to tolerate sudden change. He was addressing a function to distribute certificates of appreciation among 10 best performing ministries. He said that no system of the world could be successful without the concept of punishment and retribution.

PM Imran emphasised that in the private sector, bonuses were given on the basis of performance. People do not go to government hospitals because there is no inquiry with regard to their performance.

With reference to distribution of certificates, he said that incentives would also be given to the best performing ministries, through which gradual change could be brought about and he appreciated Murad Saeed for securing the number one position in the Ministry of Communications. He also appreciated Special Assistant Establishment Division Arbab Shehzad and his team.

The PM said Aga Khan, Al-Shifa and Shaukat Khanum are acknowledged internationally because there is no compromise on performance, and development is based on performance. He contended that the role of ministries is very important for making the country self-reliant and “we have to find unique solutions to deal with economic challenges”.

PM Imran said the standard of the awards should be the performance of these ministries in the national interest, increase exports and the role of these ministries in solving problems of people. He noted that “in order to evaluate the performance of the ministries on the basis of who can think something out of the ordinary, we have to see how we can make people’s lives easier”.

He said, “In the past, some bureaucrats did not take action out of fear of NAB, which would have caused huge losses, but we have now removed that hurdle with the reforms. We will continue to increase bonuses based on performance, and if the ministries are not doing anything, we will bring the idea of ‘punishment’.”

At the ceremony, PM Imran Khan presented certificates of appreciation to 10 best performing federal ministries, with the Ministry of Communications coming first, the Ministry of Planning second and the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation third. The ceremony also highlighted the ministries that scored 80pc and above. However various ministers with very important portfolios including Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Law Minister Farogh Nasim, etc., were left out of the important contest. The Prime Minister's Office said in a Twitter message that the awards were being distributed under a "performance agreement" with federal ministries that set targets for them.

The top ministries awarded certificates were:

(1). Ministry of Communications (Murad Saeed); (2). Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives (Asad Umar); (3) Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Division (Dr. Sania Nishtar); (4). Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (Shafqat Mahmood); (5). Ministry of Human Rights (Dr Shireen Mazari); (6). Ministry of Industry and Production (Khusro Bakhtiar); (7). National Security Division (Dr. Moeed Yousuf); (8). Ministry of Commerce (Abdul Razak Dawood); (9). Ministry of Interior (Sheikh Rashid Ahmed); (10). Ministry of National Food Security and Research (Syed Fakhr Imam).

Also, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that over 70,000 housing projects worth Rs1.4 trillion had been approved which would have an overall impact of Rs7.3 trillion on the construction industry and 1.2 million jobs will be created.

To this effect, Prime Minister chaired a meeting of NCC on Housing, Construction and Development here, which was briefed that for the very first time in the history of Pakistan a sustainable ecosystem for low-cost housing has been developed and implemented which has enabled the sector to achieve exponential growth.

The PM emphasised that it is the PTI government's huge achievement that out of the total 80,000 applications, 35,420 applications amounting to Rs130 billion had been approved, and a total of Rs46 billion disbursed to 13,407 applicants so far.

He said that applications worth Rs7 billion were being received weekly, out of which Rs4 billion had been approved and Rs2 billion is being disbursed every week which shows that the devised system is working efficiently.

“PTI's government has achieved huge milestones regarding provision of low-cost housing to lower and middle income class. Our government's biggest challenge was to change the elitist mindset of financial institutions and ensure facilitation of common people in getting loans,” he added. PM Imran said an average loan worth Rs36 lakh in the approved and disbursed loans figure showed that the biggest beneficiary of subsidized loans is the middle and lower income class while in the last three years of the government, a 148pc increase in housing finance and expected approval of Rs517 billion till December 2022 reflects the steps taken by the government to facilitate low cost housing and construction industry.

“In line with the manifesto of the PTI, the government is moving in the direction to add 1pc every year in the housing finance against our GDP that will result in the construction boom and provision of houses to the lower and middle income class,” he noted.

The meeting was told that the Foreclosure Law has been implemented in letter and spirit and long-term loans (up to 20 years) with subsidised markup (as low as only 2pc) are being given. In addition to that a cost subsidy of Rs300,000 for low income housing schemes and 90pc tax waiver has resulted in encouraging the private sector, which is actively participating in the construction of housing units under the schemes. The projects include urban, urban regeneration, government funded and private sector projects.

The meeting was also briefed about the transparent and automated process to receive and process the application which has resulted in targeting the needful lower and middle income class. This is being ensured by the development of one window digital portal with automated application tracking system by development authorities.

The meeting was briefed on figures regarding the total low cost housing construction activity so far after 2018. A total of 161,924 low cost housing units were approved, out of which 45,191 units are under construction and 20,898 units have been completed, which is significant, bearing in mind that before the subsidies by the government, foreclosure law and low cost housing schemes by the PTI's government, the sector was in a shambles.

A breakup of the government financed low cost housing projects was also given according to which 4,000 units in Farash Town, 4,000 units in LDA City, 1,320 units in Jalozai, 245 units in Raiwind, 324 units in Sargodha and Chiniot and 1,800 units at Angoori Road are being constructed with completion de adlines before the end of 2022.

The meeting was also told that a total of 2,507 projects worth Rs627 billion had been registered on the FBR Portal under Fixed Tax Regime which have an impact of Rs3.135 trillion on the economy.

The PM ordered to complete projects in the defined timelines and emphasised taking steps to improve and ease the process for low cost housing projects.

The meeting was attended by federal ministers Shaukat Fayyaz Tarin, Fawad Chaudhry, Minister for State Farrukh Habib, SAPM Dr. Shahbaz Gill, Governor State Bank, Chairman NAPHDA, Lt-Gen (retd) Anwar Ali Haider, CEO RUDA Imran Amin, chief secretaries of Punjab and Balochistan and senior officials concerned.

Chairing a meeting here on SEZs Facilitation Model and Regulatory Guillotine for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) under PM’s Priority Sector Progress Review, PM Imran Khan said incentivising rapid industrialisation through massive investment in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) is the government’s top priority and it is focused on attracting maximum foreign direct investment (DFI) in the country.

The PM was informed that 112 out of 167 reforms, identified by the Board of Investment (BOI), have been implemented to ensure ease of doing business for all potential investors in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs): The remaining 55 reforms will also clear necessary regulatory approvals within a month.

He was informed that all chambers of commerce & industry and trade associations across Pakistan had been appreciative of government’s remarkable reforms for facilitation of investors. They especially mentioned the ease in company registration process by the Security & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the proposed Asaan Karobaar Portal initiative of the Board of Investment (BOI) in this regard. It is because of these historic steps that Pakistan has recently witnessed a 37pc improvement in the Business Confidence Index.

The prime minister directed all the regulatory authorities including the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to streamline their respective regulatory frameworks to enable the investors get their issues resolved under one roof in the shortest possible time, because time is the most critical factor in making investment decisions.

He also directed them to facilitate the growth of the SME sector in the country which contributes around 25pc in the country’s total exports. He directed the relevant authorities to immediately resolve all pending issues of the SME sector related to export refinancing facility, payment of Duty Drawback on Local Taxes and Levies (DLTL), and financing from banks to address their liquidity crunch.

Moreover, he directed them to notify 5-year export policies for all major sectors, especially the textile and SME in order to lend certainty to the exporters. The PM was briefed that the board of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) is being revamped along with the creation of Rs30 billion SMEDA Fund for the promotion of the sector.