Imran rues Indian response to peace talk offer

Prime Minister Imran laments India’s failure to realise that most prevalent challenge to region is poverty

ISLAMABAD : Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday lamented India’s failure to realise that the most prevalent challenge to the region is poverty.

Addressing civil servants, the prime minister said the Indian leadership was unable to comprehend that prosperity in the region was directly linked with improving socioeconomic conditions of the people.

He stated this while responding to a question of a bureaucrat about Pakistan’s recent initiative to improve relations with India and the disappointing response from the Indian-side to peace desire expressed by the prime minister earlier.

“It is unfortunate that the Indian leadership is failing to realise that the biggest challenge confronting the region is alleviating poverty and improving the socioeconomic condition of the people of the region,” Imran was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the PM Office.

Addressing to the participants of 109th National Management Course, Imran also said that his government was focusing on stabilisation measures along with undertaking institutional reforms with an aim to improve vital sectors such as education, health, governance, etc.



“Local government system introduced by the present government will help address many issues through empowerment of the people’s representatives at the grassroots level,” the prime minister said while sharing the PTI government’s experience of reforms in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in education, health, alternate dispute resolution and other areas.

He said challenges being faced by the country include menace of corruption and rapid population growth.

The prime minister said the government’s policy of de-politicisation of institutions, meritocracy and transparency offered a great opportunity to bureaucracy to improve its performance and play its due role in translating political vision into reality.

He said being the backbone of the state, the bureaucracy had a huge responsibility to deliver and come up to the expectations of the nation.

Highlighting the huge potential of the country — including the human capital, mineral wealth, strategic location and other resources, the prime minister underscored the need for better management of the available resources, improving service delivery and most importantly a commitment and passion to serve the nation to the best of one’s abilities.



The meeting with senior civil servants from various occupational groups and cadres was later turned into an interactive session where the Prime Minister shared his vision with the participants and answered their questions.

Meanwhile, the prime minister Imran Khan underscored the need to present a strong case of the government in the media in connection with turning to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout.

He said this while chairing a top-level meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers, in which party leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pervez Khattak, Shafqat Mehmood, Shireen Mizari, Azam Swati, Shibli Faraz, Ali Muhammad Khan and Usman Dar were all present, Express News reported.

PM Imran said he wanted to provide relief to citizens and will steer the country clear of the impending financial disaster.

According to reports, the country’s premier apprised participants why the government had turned to the IMF for a bailout package.

The premier also shared future economic policies expected to be rolled out during the government’s tenure. He added that his government would always take into account the public sentiments before taking key decisions.