Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday reiterated that fighting organised crime, including corruption, cybercrimes, economic crimes, immigration-related crimes, money laundering and across-the-board accountability are the main planks of PTI government’s agenda.

The prime minister was talking to newly appointed Director General Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Dr Wajid Zia, who called on him here at the PM Office.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar was also present during the meeting.

DG FIA Dr Wajid Zia assured the prime minister that he will do his best to serve the country with commitment.

Separately, Prime Minister Imran Khan said the government’s policies have resulted in economic stability and increased business community’s confidence despite the difficult economic situation. Chairing a meeting of the government’s economic team, he stressed upon extending further facilitation to the business community, especially to the small and medium entrepreneurs, so that they are encouraged and do not face any financial issues. The meeting considered the country’s economic situation, progress on the pending cases related to the FBR in courts, process of tax refunds to the exporters, progress on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, steps at generating the non-tax revenue, and regular steps to review progress on different development projects.

Addressing the meeting, the prime minister said the economic stability and provision of job opportunities to the youth and skilled people are the highest priorities of the government. He underlined the need for out-of-box thinking and making proposals in this regard. The government’s full attention is focused on provision of relief to the common man, he added. The prime minister observed that continuous progress on development projects will on one hand accelerate the economic process and on the other hand provide employment opportunities to the country’s youth. He stressed upon giving special focus to further increasing the close coordination among all the relevant inter-provincial authorities and the departments in this regard.

The meeting was informed that during July to November this year, the data showed an increase in the volume of export and the income in terms of dollars. During the month of October, the imports witnessed a surge by six per cent as compared to the corresponding month in the previous year whereas these figures in the month of November reached to 9.6 per cent. The prime minister expressed his satisfaction over the situation.

The attorney general for Pakistan apprised the meeting in detail about the pending cases of the FBR in the Supreme Court, Islamabad, Lahore, Sindh and Peshawar high courts. He informed that a total of 1,089 cases were instituted out of which 551 had been decided whereas 285 were still pending. In others, the decisions had been either reserved or under hearing process. The prime minister directed the attorney general to expedite the process for early adjudication of the pending cases.

He assured that the attorney general’s office will be fully facilitated with all the required resources to effectively present the government’s stance during hearing of these cases related to the FBR. He opined that with early disposal of these cases, the issues of the business community will be resolved, leading to further ease of doing business.

The prime minister was also comprehensively apprised over refunds process to the exporters. He directed the FBR to further simplify the mechanism introduced for the payment of these refunds, so that the small and medium exporters should not feel any difficulty in receiving the outstanding amounts.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar, Minister for Food Security Makhdoom Khusru Bakhtiar, Minister for Planning Asad Umar, Minister for Energy Omar Ayub, Advisor on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Advisor Dr Ishrat Hussain, Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan, Special Assistant on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Special Assistant on Social Security Dr Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant Nadeem Babar, Chairman of Board of Investment Dr Zubair Gillani, Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Reza Baqir, former finance minister Shaukat Tareen and other senior officials.