Daily Times

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the would-be president, Asif Ali Zardari, on Thursday promised to take challenges head on and to steer the country out of crises as the former endorsed the latter’s candidacy for the president’s position. The duo also pledged to work together.

Amid rigging allegations and protest calls by rivals, the Shehbaz-Zardari duo on Thursday recounted the challenges being faced by the country and vowed that they would change Pakistan’s fate after taking the reins of the country together following the president’s election on March 9.

Even before winning the presidential elections, Zardari while assuring full support to PM Shehbaz tabled his plan of un-tapping China’s $5 trillion food-import market, saying fixing the agriculture sector was needed to get Pakistan a share from this market alone.

The pledges and endorsement came during a dinner reception hosted by PM Shehbaz for members of PML-N and its coalition partners at the Prime Minister’s House. At the reception, Shehbaz, who is also the PML-N’s president, threw his weight behind Zardari together with the MQM-P, BAP, the IPP and the PML-Q.

Apart from the joint presidential candidate, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, MQM-P’s Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, PML-N’s Ishaq Dar, Azam Nazeer Tarar, Khawaja Asif, Khawaja Saad Rafique, PPPP’s Yousaf Raza Gilani, Raza Rabbani, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Khurshid Shah and IPP Aleem Khan and Awn Chaudhry as well as several other politicians attended the dinner.

The premier acknowledged that his government was facing immense challenges on various fronts, particularly the economy. Shehbaz said he has been taking briefings since he took oath and the numbers are alarming.

The PM revealed that the gas and electricity circular debt has soared to Rs5 trillion while the debt of the PIA has ballooned to Rs825 billion.

The annual electricity theft amounts to Rs500 billion, PM lamented, underscoring the gravity of the economic situation. He also highlighted that the government had refunded Rs65 billion to exporters, stressing the need to expand the tax base while reducing the burden on those already taxed.

He pointed out that Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio was just 9.8%, whereas it was higher in other countries. Shehbaz also highlighted the losses of state-owned entities, losses that amount to hundreds of billions of rupees, and the government’s reliance on loans to cover these losses.

During the reception, PM Shehbaz said that Rs1.7 billion in taxes were stuck in courts due to litigation. “We must unite to lead Pakistan out of the present economic difficulties. If we fail, history will not forgive us,” he remarked. “Our goal is to improve the nation’s condition, and we must present our proposals to friendly countries to attract investment,” he said. While expressing his gratitude to all those supporting him in the presidential elections, Zardari admitted that the challenges facing Pakistan are difficult but their solution is not impossible.

Zardari, while pointing out that China imports $5 trillion food, said that Pakistan could capture it by focusing on the agriculture sector as it has the potential to attract trillions of dollars. Equating Shehbaz with Einstein, Zardari said that “Einstein was not afraid of difficult challenges and Shehbaz Sharif is also not afraid of them either”.

Zardari pledged his support to Shehbaz, affirming his commitment to assist him at every level. “Fix agriculture, fix canals and build dams, let us become a ‘force multiplier’ for China, all this is definitely difficult but not impossible, we will make Pakistan prosperous together,” he added.

On the occasion, Bilawal expressed gratitude to all the coalition parties and Shehbaz Sharif, emphasizing that Asif Ali Zardari would make history as the first civilian president of Pakistan to take office for a second term on Saturday.

“Zardari was the strongest president in the country’s history. We passed the 18th Amendment and transferred the powers to the prime minister, abolished 58-2(b) and gave this power to the prime minister,” he added, saying he would nevertheless be a president like the Queen of England.

The PPP chairman expressed optimism that Zardari, once elected president, would unify the nation and resolve societal divisions, as he had done in the past, ultimately strengthening democracy through collaboration with all political parties. “We must face Pakistan’s challenges together, but we are optimistic about our success,” Bilawal asserted. “We will endeavour to secure victory for our joint candidate (Zardari) with the highest possible number of votes.”