Shehbaz Sharif regrets political opponents continue making conspiracies and misleading nation at this critical time n Puts responsibility of current economic crisis on PTI govt as it breached IMF agreement n Says current govt has now met all IMF conditions and hopes loan program revival very soon n With govt efforts, Pakistan has purchased Russian crude oil at less than the international price n May 9 incidents ashamed the whole nation.
ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that political stability was highly important to achieve economic strength, attract investments, and ensure development as well as prosperity in the country.
“Until there is no political stability, there would not be any economic stability as both are inter-linked with each other,” he said this while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the rehabilitated and widened Captain Karnal Sher Khan Shaheed Road (previously known as IJ Principal Road) here yesterday.
The PM said that in a situation where there was political instability in the country, the political opponents were hatching conspiracies everywhere, spreading false propaganda and misleading the nation; nobody would be ready to invest in the country.
Putting the responsibility of current economic crisis on the previous government, the prime minister said it breached its own agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to which the confidence of the Fund in Pakistan shattered and it was now hesitant to resume its agreement.
However, he said the current government had met all the conditions of the IMF and hoped that the programme would resume anytime very soon.
PM Shehbaz resolved that “under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif, we all together would bring the country out of the crisis and make it a stable and developed Pakistan.”
He said those nations remained alive and move forward with pride that remembered their martyrs and respected the armed forces.
The May 9 incidents ashamed the whole nation, he said adding the martyrs sacrificed their lives for the sake of the country’s security and saved hundreds of thousand children from becoming orphan by making their own children orphans.
He said a patriotic citizen could not even think of what had happened on May 9. The people involved in the incidents were in fact enemies of the country, he added.
He said the facts had proved now that the conspirators just wasted the nation’s precious time by making false allegation of removing his government by a cypher from the United States.
He said due to the sincere efforts of current government, the crude oil had been purchased at a price, at least $15 per barrel less than the international price.
“Each dollar is important for us at this critical time, we need to minimize inflation and we need to provide maximum relief to the common man,” he said adding despite economic crisis, the government had provided maximum relief to the people.
He also appreciated Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for presenting a pro-poor budget. He informed that the government had raised the salaries of government employees by 30% to 35% and pensions by 17.5%.
With respect to the false allegation by the PTI Chairman, PM Shehbaz said if there was any corruption, the proof should have been presented. “If there is any proof, we will happily present ourselves for investigation,” he added.
Imran Niazi kept on terming his opponents as thieves but he himself had been proved to be guilty of corruption in Toshakhana and Al-Qadir Trust cases, he added.
On the occasion, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said the PML-N under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif, had eradicated the menace of terrorism from the country. He said overcoming the electricity load shedding was also hallmark of the PML-N government.