‘TRANSFORMATIVE DAY’.

Bunch of thugs acted on Imran’s orders to attack military installments: PM.

LAHORE   -   The first Russian discounted crude oil cargo has arrived in Karachi and will begin oil dis­charge on Monday (today), Prime Minister Shehbaz Shar­if made this announcement on Twitter on Sunday. 

“I have fulfilled another of my promises to the nation, the prime minister said.” Today is a transformative day. We are mov­ing one step at a time toward prosperity, economic growth and energy security & afford­ability.” He said this was the first ever Russian oil cargo to Paki­stan and the beginning of a new relationship between Pakistan and Russian Federation. Sheh­baz Sharif commended all those who remained part of this na­tional endeavor and contribut­ed to translating the promise of Russian oil import into reality.

‘AGREEMENT WITH IMF’

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Sunday expressed hope that Pakistan will reach agree­ment with International Mone­tary Fund (IMF) in June to get the remaining loan as his gov­ernment had met all the con­ditions with sincerity. Speak­ing at a ceremony at Sabzazar Sports Complex here, he said he had a long conversation with chief of IMF recently and he assured that the government would meet conditions for the loan and provide the required information about budget.

He said Pakistani nation was vibrant and was capable of meeting all the coming economic challenges in case of any further delay in the IMF programme.

He said despite all the econom­ic difficulties, the federal gov­ernment raised the salaries of employees by 30 to 35 per­cent, increased pension by 17 percent and increased mini­mum wage from Rs 25000 to Rs 32000. The government was aware of the economic difficul­ties of the poor people, he add­ed. He said major funds were allocated for the sectors of ag­riculture and information tech­nology in the federal budget presented by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, adding the budget would provide relief to the com­mon man and create jobs.

The prime minister said he assumed government in April 2022 amid very tough econom­ic conditions. Last year, the gov­ernment of Imran Niazi broke the agreement with Interna­tional Monetary Fund and the coalition government had to face the challenge of rising com­modity and oil prices in the in­ternational market and then it spent huge funds for the relief and rehabilitation of people af­fected by the devastating funds, he mentioned. The government had to seek help from friendly countries to overcome econom­ic challenges, he continued.

He said the government of Im­ran Niazi showed negligence and did not buy gas when its prices were very low in the in­ternational market during the COVID pandemic. Imran Nia­zi did nothing for the people but wasted all his time in wag­ing vendetta against opposi­tion leaders, he added. He said Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Hamza Shehbaz and other lead­ers of Pakistan Muslim League (N) were put in the jails and op­position was pushed against the wall. Shehbaz said economic stability was not possible with­out political stability and vowed to put Pakistan on the path of greater progress and prosperity under the dynamic leadership of Nawaz Sharif.

He said the incidents of May 9 were acts of hostility against the nation, adding the military installations were attacked and Jinnah House was burned down on the instigation of Imran Ni­azi. He asserted that law will take its course and all those re­sponsible for the incident of May 9 would be punished so that these crimes could not be repeated again. However, he as­sured that innocent would be treated fairly and with justice.

The PM said in 2017, as ser­vant of Punjab province he started work on a plan for es­tablishing 14 state of the art sports complexes but the fas­cist government of Imran Nia­zi stopped the project after the stolen elections of 2018. The proposed sports complexes in­cluded facilities of swimming pools, gymnasiums, badminton and squash courts. He recalled that the leadership of Pakistan Muslim League(N) was put in jail for initiating huge public welfare projects including proj­ects of clean drinking water and solid waste management in cit­ies. In the four years of the pre­vious government, work on the development projects includ­ing projects worth billions of rupees of China Pakistan Eco­nomic Corridor (CPEC) were stopped, he said adding the government led by Nawaz Shar­if in its tenure eliminated pow­er outages, constructed a net­work of roads across Pakistan and carried out monumental development projects.

He said today he was inaugu­rating the first of the 14 sports complexes from which talented youth will benefit free of charge. The sports complex would have separate facilities for boys and girls and 50 percent of the membership would be free while the other half of members would be charged to meet the operational costs of the com­plex. Prime Minister Muham­mad Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said that the enhanced bilater­al cooperation between Paki­stan and Turkiye through joint investment and ventures would prove ‘a win win’ situation for the both countries. In an inter­view with Haber Global, a Turk­ish Tv channel, the prime min­ister highlighted that a target of bilateral trade to the tune of $5 billion, in the next three years, between the two countries was very much achievable.

The prime minister said that the areas of solar and hydro power energy in Pakistan pos­sessed huge potential and the Turkish investors could avail of this opportunity. “I want to as­sure as Prime Minister of Paki­stan to do everything to facil­itate Turkish investors. There is great scope between the two countries to make this wonder­ful journey more successful,” he added. The prime minister opined that respective sectors of Turkiye had potential in these areas of Pakistan and it could play its role. Our labour was more skilled and if they have Turkish investment, it would be a well combination, thus open­ing vistas of opportunities for joint ventures, he added. The prime minister, to another que­ry, replied that the railroad net­work between Pakistan, Iran and Turkiye could play a very important role which required improvisation.

It would definitely result in re­duction of the cost of transpor­tation and making their produc­tion of goods very compatible in the global markets, he said, add­ing that his aim was make this network more efficient.

Felicitating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his reelec­tion, the prime minister said that the president had proved himself as an established states­man and politician.

The prime minister said that he was looking forward to working closely with president Erdogan to further cement their bilateral relations and trade and investment ties.

Comparing Pakistan and Tur­kiye as ‘one soul two hearts’ he said the relations between the two countries dated back to centuries. Turkiye had al­ways supported Pakistan in dif­ficult times, ie; during floods and quakes, it had gone an extra mile to support them, he added.

Similarly, different govern­ments of Pakistan irrespective of the political party in pow­er, they always supported their Turkish brothers and sisters. When it came to Turkiye, all the political parties were one.

“This is the journey we have adopted and hope to achieve our mission through hard work and sincerity of purpose,” he stressed. The prime minister said that these personal bonds of brothers and friends always helped them to come through every thick and thin. The prime minister said that Pakistan and Turkiye enjoyed strong strate­gic partnership as they had also entered into joint ventures over ship making industry, adding while there were other areas in which both brotherly countries had shared interests.

He reaffirmed support to Tur­kiye’s territorial solidarity and integrity and said that Turkiye had always supported Pakistan on the issue of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. 

The prime minister, respond­ing to a question, said that they had been passing though diffi­cult challenges, prices were sky rocketed due to imported infla­tion, the floods had displaced 33 million people while crops were completely washed away and infrastructure stood damaged which had cost them around $30 billion losses.Still, he reiter­ated that the people of Pakistan were strong and facing these challenges, and expressed his optimism that they would ne­gotiate through these challeng­es with joint efforts.

The prime minister, to anoth­er question, maintained that the coalition government had suc­cessfully galvanized the inter­national community after floods last year and arranged a Geneva donors’ conference where the intentional community made pledges, thus it saved the coun­try from serious dangers of de­fault. The previous government reneged its agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that led to very serious economic situation. They coali­tion government was able to ne­gotiate with the Financial Ac­tion Task Force (FATAF) and Pakistan was out of the grey area. “The credit goes to the co­alition government which was a big achievement,” he added.

The prime minister said that despite these challenges, they were focused on improving the economy and cited recent wheat and cotton crop yields, saying that they economy of Pa­kistan was improving.

The prime minister expressed the confidence that the IMF’s 9th review would sooner of lat­er be approved as they had met all the points. Prime Minister Sharif further said that the Indi­an atrocities and the sacrifices of Kashmiri people were known to the entire world.

He said that India was ada­mant and had a hegemonic at­titude, stressing “It was a high time for the world to resolve the Kashmir issue as per UN Securi­ty Council resolutions and aspi­rations of the Kashmiri people.”

Unless, the issue was resolved, peace could not return. Only holding of peaceful talks was a way forward for the peaceful resolution of the issue, he said, adding the both countries need­ed to feed and create jobs for its population and eliminate pov­erty by spending their resourc­es on these areas. To a question, the prime minister maintained that they had formed a commit­tee to hold parleys with the Pa­kistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and to ar­rive on a peaceful settlement of holding of elections nationwide. The committees were agreed but Imran Khan refused.