THE Federal Cabinet meeting on Thursday did not take any significant decision except closure of several offices relating to welfare of the child but the address of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was, indeed, promising as he touched several important topics of interest to the people and concerning problems facing the troubled economy. He committed to look personally into the road-blocks hindering sectors like finance, investment, exports, information technology (IT), agriculture, power and petroleum to ensure accelerated growth and shared his views on new IMF deal; privatization of the national flag carrier; outsourcing of airports; reforms in Federal Board of Revenue (FBR); security of Chinese nationals working on developmental projects in Pakistan and threat letters to judges.
There can be no two opinions that the sectors identified by the Prime Minister offered immense potential for accelerating the pace of growth and development and it was in this backdrop that the then coalition Government headed by the incumbent PM announced several measures to promote five areas declaring them as engines of growth. Challenges facing these sectors are known and now that we have a strong platform of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) to ensure better coordination of the approved measures and a technocrat Finance Minister, it is hoped concrete progress would be visible during presentation of the new budget and the meetings that the Prime Minister pledges to hold to review their performance on a regular basis. It is encouraging that the privatisation process of PIA was on track and the Government is determined that the schedule set for the process would be fully implemented. In a related development, the Prime Minister informed his cabinet colleagues that a delegation of a Turkish firm would visit Pakistan for negotiations on outsourcing of airports. Of course, no final decision has yet been taken but the prospects of engagement of a Turkish company augur well for efficient working of the airports and improvement in quality of the services being provided to passengers as Turkish firms have a track record of producing desired results as we witnessed in the past in the case of garbage lifting and waste disposal in some cities of Punjab. Reforms in the FBR is another area that is deeply linked to tapping maximum tax collection potential of the economy. Its digitization is a step towards that direction and one hopes the Government would engage firms of sound background to ensure that the money and the time do not go to waste at the end of this crucial exercise. As for another IMF programme, it has repeatedly been stated by different leaders of the Government that the country needs continuous engagement with the Fund to take the process of structural reforms to the logical conclusion. No one would differ from the need to reform the economy to lessen dependence on foreign loans but it is the hair-raising conditions that give sleepless nights to the general public as their monetary burden and economic difficulties have compounded beyond imagination during the last few years in the name of reforms and economic stability. However, the remarks made by the Prime Minister in the cabinet huddle are somewhat solacing. While acknowledging that the terms of the new deal would not be so easy, he affirmed that the government would certainly shift the burden of tough conditions from the less privileged to privileged and wealthier sections of the society. Similar assurances have also been given by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, who is scheduled to head the negotiating team with the IMF, and hopefully the Government would stand by its commitment. The anthrax-laden letters written to several judges is a matter of concern for all and therefore, the Prime Minister held out an assurance that the government would probe the matter of threat letters received by judges with suspicious powder, with a sense of responsibility to uncover the reality. This, together with the issue of the letter written by six judges of Islamabad High Court (IHC) to the Supreme Judicial Council, must not be politicized and instead all stakeholders should cooperate to sort them out satisfactorily. In the backdrop of the recent suicidal attack on a convoy of Chinese engineers in Bisham, the announcement of the PM to evolve a foolproof security system is understandable and this should be done to the satisfaction of the Chinese side.
