Says media enjoying unprecedented freedom
State Minister for Information & Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Sunday said the government had chalked out a comprehensive strategy to provide loans to each and every family with low income to enable them get their own shelter through different policies announced by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government.
He was addressing the oath taking ceremony of newly elected members of Jhang Union of Journalists at Jhang Press Club.
He said the government had launched Naya Pakistan Housing Project and directions had already been issued to all banks to provide housing loans to the target groups so that the objective of adding new housing units could be achieved within the shortest possible time.
Under the scheme, people could get easy loans for construction of their 3-marla to 10-marla houses, he said, adding that the banks had so far received applications for loans of Rs 260 billion, out of which, loans of Rs 130 billion were approved and Rs 40 billion were distributed so far.
He said that Kamyab Jawan programme was also linked with Housing Project so that low income people could get housing loans for 3 to 7 years duration.
He said that past rulers only gave lollipop to people, however, the PTI government was taking practical steps for the welfare and betterment of masses. He said the government had started provision of interest free loans up to Rs 500,000 under Kamyab Jawan Programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and now the scope of this facility was extended to Punjab.
He lauded the health card scheme and said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had made every citizen of Pakistan a millionaire because the card holder could get medical treatment up to Rs 1 million from the best hospital of his choice. He said that past rulers preferred to get treatment of their diseases from abroad as they failed to establish even a single quality hospital in the country.
Now, Prime Minister Imran Khan brought a universal health insurance system under which each family in Punjab would get Sehat Card by March 31 and the card holder would be entitled to get free treatment from any public or private hospital of the country.
About 2 million people have so far availed the treatment facilities through Sehat cards, he added.
He said the PTI government was introducing durable reforms and programmes in all sectors which could not be stopped or eradicated because these reforms and programmes would have direct links with the public welfare. He said the government was also concentrating to equip youth with hi-tech certification under “Skill for All” programme so that they could start their own business instead of running behind jobs.
He said that IT exports were 8 million dollars when PTI came into power, and now it jumped to 3 billion dollars and the government was also focusing to further enhance it.
He said that Imran Khan was a visionary leader who preferred to smart lockdown during corona pandemic and the step was also appreciated by global community as this decision not only saved jobs of millions of workers in Pakistan but also accelerated the pace of industrialization and increased national exports.
He said that in 2013 exports of Pakistan and Bangladesh were equal at 24 billion dollars. Later, Pakistani exports witnessed decrease and it was recorded at 22 billion dollars in 2018 when Bangladeshi exports were 47 billion dollars.
However, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after coming into power took prudent steps which caused a substantial increase in exports and now total Pakistani exports were on 38 to 39 billion dollars.
