Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday said that circular debt issue would be resolved soon, adding that all economic indicators of the country were moving towards positive direction, which has also been endorsed by the World Bank.
Speaking in PTV's programme, PM Online, he said instructions have been issued to the Finance Ministry and the issue of circular debt would be resolved soon. He said most of the load shedding was because of the fact that the existing generation capacity remained un-utilised and resolution of circular debt would help improve the supply position. He said after that there would not be any unscheduled load shedding.
The prime minister said immediate‚ medium and long term projects were being undertaken to resolve the power crisis. The government has already added 3434 MW of electricity to the system and some additional projects would be completed during the year. "The government is also working on Diamer-Bhasha dam‚ Thar coal project‚ import of gas from Iran and Turkmenistan and import of LNG to resolve the problem," he added.
He said World Bank has appreciated that the economic indicators were progressing comparatively better than those of other countries of the world. Gilani pointed out that he made a comprehensive statement on the floor of the National Assembly on the state of the economy but no one seemed to be interested in further discussion on the subject.
The prime minister said the Government was broadening the tax base and seven hundred thousand new tax payers had been brought under the tax net. "Measures are also being taken to increase revenue collection," he added. He reiterated that timing of the next general elections could be discussed after presentation of the budget in May this year.
The prime minister said, "as against the past practice when Presidents used their discretionary powers to dissolve Assembly‚ this time the situation is different as it is the prerogative of only the prime minister to decide about timing of the elections."To a question, the prime minister said the next elections would be free‚ fair and transparent. He said that the PPP was not one time party and it was in its interest to have free and fair elections for the sake of next generations.
About right of vote to overseas Pakistanis‚ he said that the matter was subjudice. The prime minister said the new Chief Election Commissioner would be appointed with consensus as in the case of appointment of members of the Commission.
About new provinces‚ he said a constitutional amendment would be introduced after consensus in the parliament for creation of new provinces. He said that separately homework had been done to evolve consensus on Seraiki province but clubbing of Hazara province by MQM had made a difference. Responding to a question by a caller‚ the Prime Minister said as per its manifesto‚ the PPP Government reinstated sacked employees and regularised services of contract ones.
Comments
Comments are closed.