ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that the country is moving on the path of economic stability due to the government’s prudent policies and the inflation rate has come down to 7 percent.
Addressing a high-level meeting on law and order in Islamabad on Friday, the Prime Minister said that Pakistan’s policy rate is 15% and the friendly countries are willing to invest in the country owing to a stable economic situation.
PM Shehbaz lashed out at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for using state resources to launch an onslaught on Islamabad during its recent three-day protest. “This is not a political party but a fitna [mischief] and a group of terrorists, ” the premier said.
He added that the nation will have to think whether they will support sabotage and corruption or support the construction and stability in the country.
The Prime Minister said that whenever foreign delegations come to Pakistan with an aim to invest in the country, Islamabad is attacked.
Referring to PTI’s 126-day sit-in in Islamabad, the PM said: “No one could have even thought of such evil ambitions before 2014.” He said that the sit-in was planned at a time when the Chinese President was scheduled to visit Pakistan in 2014. “Chinese president’s visit was cancelled due to the [PTI] sit-in.”
PM Shehbaz was of the view that the sit-in not only brought disrepute to Pakistan but also ruined the country’s economy. He said the then government had asked senior PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi to call off the sit-in for 3 days so that the Chinese President could visit Pakistan, but he refused to do so.
Shahbaz Sharif said that recently when the Shanghai Cooperation Organization conference was held, another march was announced toward Islamabad.
He said that this was the fourth time the rioters attacked Islamabad amid the secluded visit of the President of Belarus.
He went on to that Pakistan is moving ahead on the path of economic stability and the stock exchange has crossed the historic 100,000 benchmark showing the confidence of the investors in the government policies.
On the recent terrorism incidents, he said the bloodbath in North Western Parachinar city showed how bad the situation had become. But, he deplored, that instead of resolving the issues, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister led the rogue groups towards the capital by using the government’s resources.
The Prime Minister warned that the former ruling party would not be allowed to destroy Pakistan. “We need to break these hands [instead].” The protests and sit-ins cost Pakistan’s economy Rs190 billion per day, he added.
Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and other security figures as well as federal ministers participated in the session.
