ISLAMABAD: As some cracks began to appear in the ruling coalition, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday gathered his allies to unite on key decisions to stabilize the crippled economy, and hoped for “better days to come”. .
The Prime Minister hosted a dinner for leaders of all coalition parties at the Pradhan Mantri Bhavan, in which he vowed to jointly lift the country from unprecedented economic decline and political instability.
The coalition government was formed on 10 April, when the parties, then in opposition, managed to topple the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) regime through a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly.
“The alliance will definitely bring about a change in its 14-month rule. We will work with determination to turn the country into Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan,” he vowed.
Interestingly, some leaders of allies in the National Assembly on Monday criticized the government’s decisions and claimed that they were not being taken on board in taking important decisions.
On one hand, Prime Minister Sharif gave people the hope of “acche din”, while on the other he hinted at not providing immediate relief to the inflation-affected masses. He revealed that the power load will increase in July as the government cannot import liquefied natural gas (LNG) for power generation as European countries have already bought LNG cargo due to the global oil crisis.
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He also claimed that the government had saved the country from the bankruptcy that it had inherited from the previous PTI regime, now a coalition government was entering one. fresh agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“The PTI government has violated the agreement made with the IMF, so the fund has now placed tough conditions for us,” he said.
The Prime Minister said that the government had imposed heavy tax On the net income of the affluent to avoid bankruptcy. “We imposed a direct tax on the net income of the rich so that its impact does not go down. We expect an additional Rs 200 billion to be generated annually in this way.
Mr Sharif claims to have achieved a major milestone by paving the way for cheap coal imports from Afghanistan for industrial sector and power generation. “We will save $2 billion annually by importing coal from Afghanistan instead of South Africa. The quality of Afghan coal is as good as the one being imported from South Africa. We were thinking of options to stabilize our economy and Allah Almighty showed us a way,” he said.
Published in Dawn, June 28, 2022