Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman on Wednesday stressed the need for making coordinated efforts by all the stakeholders to overcome the confronted challenges related to the national economy, climate change, energy, and depleting water resources to achieve sustainable economic growth and bring the country out of the looming crisis.

Participating in the federal budget 2022-23 debate, she said the government would have to take tough decisions to break the debt trap and bring fundamental changes to the economic model, putting it back on the right track.

She apprised the House that climate change was a serious matter that required special and coordinated attention to minimize its adverse impact on local agriculture and the ecosystem.
Expressing concerns over the wastage of water, she said Pakistan was among the top four countries having the highest per-capita water consumption.

She urged rationalizing the water usage for both domestic and irrigation purposes, besides taking measures to stop polluting the water resources.

Senator Sherry Rehman also expressed concern over the rising pollution of the Indus-delta which threatened marine life, asking for collective efforts to overcome the challenge.

Sherry Rehman said the incumbent collation government had inherited a fragile economy, which was the result of inefficiencies and incompetence, and mismanagement of the last government.
While criticizing the policies of the PTI government, she said unwise and irrational commitments and agreements signed with international financial institutions had put the local economy on a ventilator.

She said, “the accountability government (PTI)” when came into power, the corruption index had reached 140 position from 117th, adding there were stories of corruption in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bus Rapid Transport (BRT)system, billion trees project, and other cartels including sugar, wheat, and crushing of national airline.

She said the previous regime had pushed the economy into a growing debt trap and agreed with International Monetary Fund on tough conditions, adding the borrowed money had been spent on fulfilling the demands of the elite class for leading a luxurious life.

The common man in the country had been badly affected due to the increasing prices of petroleum products and daily essential items, terming them “gifts” by the last regime that remained showed the least interest in tackling such issues during his four years tenure.

Despite severe fiscal constraints, she said the collation partners had decided to sacrifice their political capital and put their image at stake and decided to bring the country out of the crisis by taking unpopular decisions.

She apprised the House that during the last 70 years different governments negotiated about 25 IMF programs but always tried to put the minimum burden on the common man.
But unfortunately, she said the past regime of PTI took all decisions with a non-serious attitude bypassing the parliament, which divided the society.