PM vows to save people’s livelihood in Covid fight

Imran tells WEF climate change is ‘defining global challenges faced by our generation’

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said that Pakistan like other parts of the world was hit by the second wave of Covid-19, but stressed that the government would tackle the challenge, keeping in view the lessons learnt from the first wave of the pandemic.

Addressing the Country Strategy Dialogue (CSD) on Pakistan organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Imran presented Pakistan’s case to the global community on a comprehensive basis that also included the future vision and challenges.

The prime minister repeated his stance that the government was not going for a complete lockdown but would only shut the non-essential sectors. He said that public gatherings would be banned in the country to save lives of the poor people as well as economy from the severe consequences.

The prime minister spoke about various subjects, including how the country tackled the first wave of Covid-19 through effective measures and saved the people from economic effects, the strategy for second wave of coronavirus, the government’s policies for economic revival, and economic opportunities being created by the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Dilating on the successful strategy to cope with the first wave of coronavirus, he said after realising the worst economic impact of complete lockdown, the government adopted the strategy of smart lockdown on hot spots and quickly opened the construction sector, followed by other businesses to save the poor and daily wage earners from hunger.

Imran also mentioned the distribution of unprecedented cash assistance among 15 million poor people, including those rendered jobless due to the lockdown. He also mentioned the economic challenges faced by the country, including fiscal deficit, current account deficit, trade deficit etc. and said the government tackled them by cutting down expenditures and imports, increasing exports, attracting foreign direct investment, receiving more remittances and checking money laundering.

Meanwhile, answering questions from the global CEOs of Telenor, Majid Al Futtaim, Ghuangzhou, Royal Vopak, Investcorp Holdings, Imran emphasised that collaboration and technological support from all leading global organisations was pivotal for his government’s planning and growth in all sectors, which at present, were extremely underdeveloped.

All the CEOs expressed their strong support for Pakistan and to undertake new initiatives for the country’s development.

This session was then taken-up by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Hafeez Sheikh, who provided details about how the government had been able to turnaround the economy despite the devastating impact of the Covid-19.

The adviser encouraged the participants of the session for their suggestions and assured that Pakistan valued the role of all global players participating in the WEF strategy dialogue.

Borge Brende, President WEF, especially singled out the role of the Dawood Group headed by Hussain Dawood and Pathfinder Group Chairman Ikram Sehgal for their exceptional contributions to the WEF.

Sehgal was also given the distinction of speaking at the WEF. He congratulated the finance adviser and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor for their distinguished role during the Covid-19 period in supporting the business community, which trickled down to the masses.

Based on the finance adviser’s rich experience with many countries, Sehgal enquired from Shaikh about the comparison with Pakistan and also how to tackle the corruption, embezzlement and waste at the provincial governments which was a major issue besides tax revenue collection.

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)