ISLAMABAD  -  Federal Minister for Information and Broad­casting Attaullah Tarar on Thursday urged opposition and other po­litical parties not to politi­cise national economy stabilised due to consis­tent efforts of Prime Min­ister Shehbaz Sharif.

Addressing a news conference, the minister recalled the initiatives taken by PM Shehbaz Sharif led government during its previous ten­ure of 16 months.

He was flanked by Co­ordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Romina Khur­sheed Alam. The min­ister gave credit to PM Shehbaz Sharif for suc­cessful negotiations with the International Mon­etary Fund (IMF) that resulted into a standby agreement with the fund in the recent past.

He said such initia­tives had ultimately stabilized rupee against dollar and brought an improve­ment in the exchange rate sub­sequently. The minister re­called the hardships faced by the exporters in the recent past due to the fast fluctuation in the exchange rate especially stemmed from the wrong eco­nomic policies of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led government. 

“There should be no politics on the economy and everyone should play their due role for economic stability,” Tarar said while highlighting the positive indicators recorded with the ar­rival of PM Shehbaz Sharif’s gov­ernment in the country.

He said Bloomberg had fore­cast a significant reduction in in­flation in the country next year and simultaneously predict­ed an economic growth for Pa­kistan in the coming days. The country moving in right direc­tion as the economy had start­ed to boom which was reflected from the positive economic indi­cators, the minister noted.

He lauded the role played by the media in creating aware­ness among the masses regard­ing privatization process of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) that recorded Rs 80 billion annual loss. It was the common man who had been bearing the brunt of such economic losses, he said, expressing the hope that the privatization would not only generate revenue for the coun­try but also remove extra bur­den from the common man.

He said entire focus was laid on economy and efforts were underway to digitalize the Fed­eral Board of Revenue. Tarar said PM Shehbaz Sharif at­tached great importance to Pa­kistan-China friendship and he himself visited Dasu and met the Chinese engineers to express solidarity with them over the attack. He said that the entire nation was united for the bet­terment of the economy and na­tional interest. 

The minister asked the peo­ple to have hope and faith in the system and the leadership that could solve every other problem. “Shehbaz Sharif is a name of hope who has deliv­ered in the past in accordance with the aspiration of people.” The action plan would be an­nounced very soon to empower the youth, he said in response to another query. 

In response to another ques­tion, he said that the problems of sports bodies would be re­solved as a committee was being formed regarding the Pakistan Hockey Federation. With ref­erence to Pak-Iran gas pipeline project, the Minister said that there was no discussion about it in the cabinet meeting today. 

In response to a question re­garding APP, the Federal Min­ister said that a committee has been formed to investigate the recent incident in the APP. Senior officials of the Ministry of Infor­mation were investigating the in­cident. The federal said that the recommendations of the inquiry committee would be followed. 

As regards the problems of media workers and reporters, the Federal Minister of Informa­tion said that he was visiting Ka­rachi tomorrow where he would meet the members of Pakistan Broadcasters Association and All Pakistan Newspapers Society and listened to their issues for timely redressal.