Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said the Centre and the provinces had taken various decisions in the “best interest” of Pakistan as the National Economic Council (NEC) met on Wednesday.
The NEC met to finalise federal and provincial development plans ahead of the presentation of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY2026-27). It is the highest economic decision-making forum of the federation, led by the premier and comprising the four chief ministers and four federal ministers.
“The Centre held consultations with the provinces on all matters with extreme seriousness, and we made decisions in the best interest of Pakistan,” PM Shehbaz said in remarks aired on television.
The prime minister thanked all chief ministers for their “consultations and assistance on all matters”.
PM Shehbaz noted that Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz could not attend the meeting as she was recovering after her recent medical procedure.
“Today, despite having to face big challenges, our economy is stable at the macroeconomic level. But, injecting growth into this is an extremely important process,” the premier observed.
“Advancing employment, production, exports and economic activity is our collective responsibility,” he said, adding that all governments tried their best to stay on track on the IMF programme despite “some difficult stages”.
In his address, he also spoke of a phone call with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, saying that during the conversation, Georgieva was “extremely appreciative of Pakistan’s sincere efforts” towards the IMF programme.
He noted that ahead of the NEC, the centre had been consulting with the provinces on where more resources could be brought in.
PM Shehbaz noted that the “biggest challenge” the country faced was “to strengthen our defence”, particularly against terrorism.
“The entire nation, especially KP and Balochistan, as well as the law enforcement agencies and armed forces, is making sacrifices in the fight against terrorism,” the premier said.
He maintained that terrorism could only be eliminated if the country “put up a collective struggle against it”.
PM Shehbaz further stressed the need for “injecting” incentives aimed at export growth and manufacturing capabilities into the economy to accelerate GDP growth.
In his remarks, PM Shehbaz highlighted the recent “huge challenge” arising from the surge in global oil prices, which led to prices of petroleum products being increased.
“It was not possible that the Centre and provinces could have dealt with the difficult period without cooperating with each other,” he noted, expressing his heartfelt gratitude to all four chief ministers for their assistance.
“But before this provincial assistance, the Centre had already spent Rs128bn from its extremely limited resources,” he added.
Highlighting that no “rationing or long queues” were seen after the Middle East conflict sparked, PM Shehbaz affirmed that the reason for this was the “mutual unity” between the provinces and the Centre.
Concluding his address, PM Shehbaz thanked Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif as well as President Asif Ali Zardari, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah, KP CM Sohail Afridi, and Balochistan CM Sarfraz Bugti.
“Without provincial and federal integration, we would not have reached this point [..], and we must now move forward,” the premier concluded.
During the meeting, the NEC was to review federal and provincial development plans worth Rs4.715 trillion for the next fiscal year amid conflicting fiscal needs of critical political and other institutional stakeholders.
The government had also summoned sessions of the National Assembly (NA) and Senate for 5pm and 4pm today, respectively.