ISLAMABAD, Sep 05 (APP): Minister for Information, Broadcasting, National Heritage and Culture Attaullah Tarar said on Thursday that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had always been on forefront to create ease of doing business which is very critical to achieve economic growth, progress and prosperity in the country.
“Whenever the people of the country gave the chance to the PML-N to run this country, the business community has always benefited greatly”, he said while delivering his speech at CEO Summit.
Citing an example, he said till 2018 when the PML-N was in power, GDP growth rate stood at 5.8 per cent and it was projected at 6.4 per cent and inflation was merely 4 percent.
He said foreign direct investment was pouring in and China had invested nearly $ 70 billion in China Pakistan Economic Corridor and other projects. All international financial journals and institutions were projecting that Pakistan would join G-20 countries in six to seven years.
In that era, he added, Pakistan had achieved the landmark development through sincerity, dedication and clarity of thought. Without security there cannot be progress and first and foremost attention was focused on creating a safe and secure environment in the country.
He recalled that when the PML-N came into the power in 2013, Pakistan was facing challenges of energy crisis and poor law and order situation.
At that time, the national economy was losing approximately Rs 500 billion per annum due to energy shortage, he added.
The minister said that security situation of the country was also not good. After coming to power, the PML-N regime under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif embarked on projects to rid the country of energy crisis and within four years, 20 hours loadshedding was brought to zero.
He said in 2013, Karachi—the hub of business was unsafe, but the government with iron resolve and help of the security forces embarked on National Action Plan and carried out operations to improve security situation.
Tarar said during the previous tenure, the government faced threat of default and due to fluctuating currency rates, no businessmen were willing to open LCs.
By pursuing prudent policies, the country was able to avert the default, he said, while lauding the PML-N leadership for sacrificing its political capital for the betterment of the country and the people.
“Our priority and slogan now has been that the government has no business being in business,” he said while giving credit to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the policy.
“During past few decades we have seen that public sector organisations, public sector corporations and state owned enterprises were not able to deliver,” he said, ruling out any blame game in this regard.
He said that in this era of 5th generation war, the main job of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was to counter misinformation and fake news.
He said that anyone in any part of the world could damage Pakistan’s economy through misinformation and timely countering such news was very important.
Tarar said that the government had also launched the initiatives of rightsizing and downsizing for the current bureaucratic set up in order to ensure swift public service besides saving the tax payers money.
He said that Pak- PWD responsible for leakage of hundreds of billions of rupees annually was shut down through a bold step. Many more corporations, public sector organisations had no role to play in economic development of the country, would be shut down.
The minister termed the incumbent government’s initiatives of privatization, outsourcing, rightsizing and downsizing “a step in the right direction”.
He said the government was moving forward swiftly with its home grown economic reforms agenda which envisaged the digitalization of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
“Enough is Enough,” he said, adding the government wanted that the tax payers would not have to bear the burden of the non-tax payers.
The minister believed this was the only way forward to achieve the economic growth.
He said the digitalization of the FBR would incur no cost as the Melinda Gates Foundation has been funding this project which is headed by the MacKenzie.
Tarar said the initiatives would significantly increase the numbers of tax filers in the country, and reduce the leakages of the billions of rupees.
He said the government was committed to ensure safe and secure environment in the country.
As per the Azm-e-Istehkam vision , secure and safe business environment was the foremost priority of the government, he said, adding steps were being taken to create ease of doing business by removing the red tapism.
“We have good story to tell and with right kind of approach, optimism and hope, the sky is the limit and we will get through these hurdles and Pakistan will prosper,” he concluded.
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