The government would shortly announce new energy and agriculture policies to overcome the existing shortfall of power and prevailing food crisis. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said this while talking to newspaper editors at the State Guest House here on Sunday.
Under the proposed power policy, he said, necessary measures would be adopted for energy conservation, construction of small dams, installation of power plants besides other possible steps to overcome the problem of shortage of electricity.
"We are taking steps to resolve the energy crisis in the shortest possible time, and the government would require perhaps one or two years to completely resolve the power shortage problem," he said.
Recalling PPP's past agreements with the IPPs, he said that the PPP government had faced harsh criticism despite the fact that such agreements helped the country to meet its electricity demand. He said that small power generation units would be installed at appropriate locations in the hilly areas, including Kashmir. The provinces would also be allowed and encouraged to tap their potential in this regard, he added.
Giving details of the new agriculture policy he said, revolutionary steps would be taken for the promotion of livestock in the country and to overcome the shortage of food items. He pointed out that the government had allowed import of 2.5 million tons wheat against the demand of shortfall of just one million; thus there was no possibility of wheat crisis now.
The PM extolled the efforts of Punjab government to control the movement of wheat through administrative measures. He said that raise in POL prices and shortage of food items were the two major challenges the whole world was faced with presently, but Pakistan because of its agriculture economy would be in a better position to focus on increasing its agriculture output.
The Prime Minister admitted that Passco had failed to meet wheat procurement target, but pointed out that other departments had achieved 80 percent of their procurement targets.
He said that PPP was fully committed to restore judges as its sacrifices were much more than any other political party's for this cause. "I myself, along with other party workers and lawyers, remained imprisoned for the cause of the judiciary; so nobody had the right to doubt sincerity and commitment of his party for this purpose."
He said that he did not think that there were any differences between the coalition partners on the restoration of judiciary. However, they had their own views about the modalities.
"Our party wants to resolve all such issues on the floor of the parliament as we believe the parliament is supreme institution and backed by people of Pakistan and is capable to counter challenges to the democracy," he said.
About PML-Q, the Prime Minister said people had rejected its manifesto and supported PPP in the Feb 18 general elections. He said his party would implement its manifesto in letter and spirit and meet its commitment to restore the true form of parliamentary democracy in Pakistan. "Independent media, strong and stable institutions and accountable government are the key features of PPP's manifesto." he remarked.
In response to a question about his working relationship with the Presidency and the provincial governments he said he was following the policy guidelines of his party to have good working relationship with the President, all chief ministers, governors and the AJK prime minister.
About Balochistan, he said that it should be resolved through dialogue as he believed that force alone was not the solution to all problems. He said that PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari would convene an all parties conference (APC) soon over the issue of Balochistan. Earlier, the Prime Minister held a meeting with the members of Peoples Youth Organisation (PYO) at the State Guest House.