Daily Times

National Parliamentary Taskforce on Sustainable Development Goals Convener Bilal Azhar Kayani, MNA, said on Saturday that economy was a main pillar for strong national defence.

Addressing a press conference at the PML-N Secretariat here, he said: “Only those countries are strong in terms of national defence who have strong economies.” He said that whenever the PML-N government came to power, it caused economic stability in the country. He said that during the first six months after coming to power, the PML-N had worked hard and made sincere efforts to deal with challenges facing the country. Bilal Azhar said that sincere efforts of the incumbent government had yielded positive results, adding that no doubt things were still difficult for a common man. He said that currently country’s foreign exchange reserves were $9 billion, adding that when the figure would increase up to $15 billion, things would further improve. The convener said that the government was moving in the right direction, adding that country’s currency was stable as it was essential for economic activities.

Regarding inflation, he said that it was at 23 per cent in February, and now it had reduced to less than 10 per cent. The PML-N made a promise to bring down inflation rate and it fulfilled its promise 10 to 11 months prior to the given timeframe in this regard, he added. He said that in six months, per litre price of petrol had reduced by Rs 21 and price of ‘Roti’ had also reduced in Punjab. Kayani said that policy rate of State Bank had also reduced to 19.50 per cent from 22 per cent, adding that according to his understanding, the policy rate had tendency to further reduce. Policy rate had a direct link with inflation rate, he said and hoped that it would go down further as inflation rate had reduced and this would help those who were interested in doing business. He said that remittances were backbone of country’s foreign exchange reserves and in July, record figure of remittances had been noticed. He said the government was not only making efforts to control inflation but taking measures to provide maximum relief to people. He said that relief was being provided to people while remaining in the limits spelled by the International Monetary Fund. Bilal said that the government was providing subsidy to electricity consumers consuming up to 200 units and as per the announcement of PML-N President Nawaz Sharif, the Punjab government had also provided relief to domestic consumers in Punjab consuming 201 to 500 units.

He said, “The International Monetary Fund has reached a staff level agreement with Pakistan.” The IMF board approval would come after completion of procedures related to assurances of external financing gap, he added. He said that it was very unfortunate that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder had sabotaged the IMF agreement just for his vested interests. He said during 16-month government in 2022, the PML-N had revived the IMF agreement, done by the PTI in the larger interest of the country. He said the PTI founder pushed country towards default just for the sake of power.

Bilal Azhar said the PML-N wanted the IMF programme to be the last one for the country. He said that the country had to boost its capacity of earning dollars if it wanted the IMF programme to be the last one. He said that all-out efforts were being made to take the country’s export to $58 billion by 2029. Strengthening of IT sector was vital to boost country’s export, he added. He said, “Tax to GDP ratio is 8.8 per cent, and it is not acceptable; it has to be 13 per cent to achieve desired results.” Tax reforms were being made to increase tax net, he said and added that it was a national obligation to pay taxes. He said that the FBR digitalization was also very important to end corruption and to improve the FBR working. The PML-N was focusing not only on steering the country out of existing challenges but to bring ease in the lives of people. He paid tribute to Pak armed forces for making country’s defence invincible through their hard work and high spirits.