Daily Times

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Monday said the focus of the budget for the financial year 2023-2024 will be progress, public welfare and business-friendly policies. He was speaking at a high-level consultative meeting with the allied parties in the federal capital on the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

He said the size of PSDP in the budget would be increased from Rs700 billion to Rs950 billion in the next financial year to spur economic growth and create job opportunities. He said the next financial year would be the year of economic progress for Pakistan, adding economic conditions were difficult and the government was adopting a policy of utilizing available resources in the best possible manner.

The PM said substantial funds would be allocated in the new budget for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the flood-affected areas. During a briefing, the participants of the meeting were told that the long-delayed National Flood Response Programme would be restarted after a lapse of many years. He said despite the damage caused to the national economy by the previous government, his government worked hard and brought economic stability. He said he considered consultation with the allied parties very important, adding last year for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the 13-parties alliance saved the state by putting in danger their own politics.

“We cannot find this kind of effort to save the country’s economy, anywhere in the world.” He said Pakistan was saved from economic destruction and agents of chaos.

Federal Ministers Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal, Moulana Asad Mehmood, Rana Tanvir Hussain, Maulana Abdul Wasey, Syed Aminul Haque, Agha Hassan Baloch, Sardar Israr Tareen, Advisor to PM Ahad Cheema, Ministers of State Hashim Notezai, Ehsanullah Reki, member National Assembly and Convener Muttahida Qoumi Movement Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, MNAs Aslam Bhotani, Mohsin Dawar and member Awami National Party Sardar Hussain Babak and officers concerned attended the meeting.

Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, member National Assembly and Chairman Balochistan National Party Sardar Akhtar Mengal attended the meeting through a video link. The leaders and members of the allied parties thanked the prime minister for taking them into confidence about the development budget and for including their suggestions. The meeting was told in detail about the economic targets and figures and proposed projects of the development budget. The PM directed the officials concerned and the Ministry of Finance to implement the suggestions of the allied parties and incorporate them in the upcoming budget.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said every case related to the violence committed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on May 9 was being dealt with due process under the law. “I assure everyone that the culprits are being dealt with under the law and that I will ensure that no rights violations take place,” he wrote on Twitter.

Sharif said Pakistan fully respected and was committed to all its constitutional and international obligations on human rights. He said the PTI chief Imran Niazi in his interviews with international media outlets was openly and deliberately disinforming local and foreign audiences by “glib-talk laced with fake news and plain misrepresentation”. “His expedient description of the post-May 9 events as ‘human rights abuses’ and ‘stifling of the right to political protest’ is not only misleading but aimed at manipulating and swaying opinion-makers outside the country,” he said. He categorically stated that what PTI did on May 9 was a “brazen attack on the State of Pakistan, with malafide intent and sinister objectives”. “No country in the world would tolerate such an attempt at destroying its integrity,” he said.