PESHAWAR: The prudent and timely policies of present government have revived the sagging economy of the country and now internationally reputed monetary organizations are openly saying that Pakistan is heading in right direction.
This was said by Federal Minister for Finance, Senator Ishaq Dar while addressing as chief guest the 12th Businessmen Excellence Award 2013-14 organized by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPPCI) here on late Wednesday night.
Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mahtab Ahmed Khan, Governor State Bank Arshad Mahmood Wathra, Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa, Auditor General Asad Amin, President KPCCI Fuad Ishaq, President Businessman Forum Senator Ilyas Bilour, Senator Mohsin Aziz, office-bearers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industries, high officers and leading industrialists attended the function.
Addressing the award ceremony, Senator Ishaq Dar said at time when PML (N) took over charge of governance in 2013, situation was very grim as economy was in shambles and other problems like terrorism and energy shortage seem uncontrollable. The country’s foreign exchange reserves were also at a lowest level of dollar 2.75 billion, he added.
In the beginning there was an impression that Pakistan’s economy will destabilize further and foreign exchange reserves will take further plunge.
However, he continued, due to prudent policies and strict austerity measures adopted by present government, economy is returning to stability and foreign exchange reserves have reached to record 19 billion dollar.
We have reduced the annual expenditure of Prime Minister House by 40 percent and those of Federal Ministers by 30 percent. Our government strictly banned import of duty free cars for VVIPs including the President, Prime Minister, Governors and Chief Ministers.
Besides we also abolished all kind of discretionary funds of President and Prime Minister.
“Our vision is to make Pakistan the `Asian Tiger’ and we are heading towards the achievement of our desired goal,” he remarked.
He said PML (N) leadership has ensured good governance, transparency and solving the issues of the public as its top priorities.
Government wants to fully utilize the potential our country has in the shape of natural resources and hard working labour force.
Federal Finance minister said at the time when Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister in 1998, country had enough electricity of 1200 MW. We wanted to export surplus electricity at that time and India was our potential buyer.
While during the last decade, after the 1999 military coup, the country faced electricity shortage and people had to face a lot of problems, he added.
He said government is working on solid footings to overcome electricity shortfall of 4500 megawatt and about 10500 megawatt electricity would be added to our system till December 2017.
Apart from this, he went on to say, government is also working to generate 14000 MW of electricity which will be included in the system after 2017.
Finance Minister said we are contented on our achievements and still of the belief that we have to work harder for making Pakistan a strong and developed country in the world.
The ceremony was also addressed by Governor KP who assured both the national and international investors to invest in KP and FAT A as situation is improving and normalcy is returning to the region.
