• Govt, PTI stalwarts asked to start homework for LG polls
• Says dynastic politics should be discouraged
• Inaugurated the Technical Zone in Lahore
Lahore: Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the Punjab government and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership to start homework for the upcoming local government elections in the province, saying he will personally oversee the preparations.
During a meeting with government officials and the political leadership in Punjab at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on Thursday, PM Khan admitted that the wrong selection of candidates led to the party. Garland In his stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Sources quoted PM Khan as saying, “The government and party leadership should select candidates on the basis of merit and avoid dynastic politics, which was exposed after damaging the party in KP.”
“The mistakes made in KP should not be repeated in Punjab,” he insisted. With the selection of candidates on the basis of merit, Mr Khan said, PTI will give a tough time to its opponents in the local government elections in Punjab.
Sources quoted him as saying that his party conducted the KP local body elections in a free and fair manner as it neither tried to hijack the elections nor alleged any malpractices even after losing. Instead, sources said, the prime minister had taken his party members to the fore for promoting dynastic politics and not selecting candidates on the basis of merit.
Still, sources quoted Mr Khan as saying, the PTI was the second largest party in the KP, while the PML-N and the PPP were driven out of the province.
PM asks government and party leaders to hold discussions to take senior and old party leaders in the loop and contest elections punjab lg election with full enthusiasm. The premier said that he wants to hold elections at the earliest so that power and money can be transferred at the grassroots level and the problems of the people can be solved at their doorstep. Mr Khan also directed that the distribution of Sehat Insaf Cards should be expedited.
The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Governor Chaudhry Sarwar, Federal Minister Shafqat Mehmood, Special Assistant to PM Dr Shahbaz Gill, Punjab Local Government Minister Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid and party workers.
Earlier, PM Khan held a meeting with Punjab Irrigation Minister Mohsin Leghari and discussed a joint strategy to monitor river waters to overcome Sindh’s reservation.
Mr Leghari told the Premier that a team had visited Punjab and were received at the Taunsa Barrage. However, he said, when the team was sent to visit Guddu Barrage, it was ignored by the Sindh government, to which Mr Khan expressed his disappointment.
The Prime Minister also inquired about the ongoing irrigation projects in the state.
Lahore Technopolis
Pakistan can break the vicious cycle of depletion of foreign reserves and frequent visits to the International Monetary Fund by focusing only on exports and attracting foreign investment through clean governance.
This was stated by PM Khan at the inauguration ceremony of Lahore Technopolis, a special technology zone, here on Thursday. The Prime Minister said that Pakistan can leapfrog by focusing and encouraging IT parks like Technopolis, adding that such initiatives will be set up in all major cities of the country.
“Ensuring ease of doing business in technology parks will help attract foreign investment, expand exports and offer much-needed jobs to the youth of Pakistan,” he said and directed that the government would take such efforts. Eliminate tax exemption and regulation barriers. “The IT industry alone can pay the country’s current account deficit.”
Mr Khan announced that he is going to start orientation sessions for the government as well as the entire country with a focus on learning how a country’s exports can be increased and wealth can be increased. Is. Stating that there are many things that do not need to be imported but have been grown indigenously like palm oil, he said that Pakistan had to bear the brunt of inflation in other countries only because it was able to supply various daily uses. was importing goods.
Emphasizing efforts to increase exports, the premier cited the examples of China and India to develop their IT industries, encourage their foreign nationals to return and develop businesses that would eventually lead to foreign investment. used to receive He said that China deliberately increased exports, piled up national wealth and pulled 700 million people out of poverty.
Published in Dawn, December 24, 2021