Shehbaz holds out olive branch to Imran

Says PTI chief was not ready to talk to his opponents during his rule

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday once again signalled his readiness to shake hands and sit across the table with PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the national interest even though the former premier had avoided every opportunity to talk to him during his rule.

While referring to Imran’s consistent stance – during his tenure and afterwards – that he won’t shake hands with the incumbent rulers, the premier said that he would not mind engaging with anyone as the national interest was supreme and he could sacrifice anything for it.

Premier Shehbaz while addressing the launching ceremony of key initiatives for youth by the planning ministry at the PM House said that the PTI chairman was not ready to talk to his opponents when he was ruling the country but now wants the incumbent rulers to engage with him, questioning how long the “hypocrisy” could go on.

“For four years, there was no handshake and now you want us to come to you and talk,” PM Shehbaz said without naming Imran, asking “how long will this hypocrisy go on”.

The premier, however, announced that “we will be ready for that [talks or handshake] in the national interest”.

The PM said that he was ready to sacrifice everything for the national interest. He did not elaborate.

PM Shehbaz said that he along with PML-N Supremo Nawaz Sharif and the top leadership of the government allies “sacrificed their political capital in order to save Pakistan from default”.

“I can sacrifice politics for the dignity of Pakistan not once but a million times,” the PM remarked. He, however, observed that the approach that everything should revolve around one person’s wishes neither work nor contribute in making the nation great.

This is the second time that the prime minister has offered an olive branch to the PTI chairman. On the eve of the diamond jubilee, PM Shehbaz had offered talks to his bitter rival and renewed his plan of sitting together to reach a consensus on the “charter of economy” in the “greater national interest” amid worsening economic crises. However, it did not happen.

On Thursday, PM Shehbaz said that he would have lauded Imran Khan-led government had it given laptops and books to youth and equipped them with modern technology to excel in IT field.

“You have ruined this nation,” PM said while accusing the previous government of spreading polarisation in society.

For a long time, Imran has been publicly saying that he would not shake hands with the “corrupts” and “looters”, maintaining that he refuses to sit together with Shehbaz and others on the pretext that it would normalise corruption as they were facing fraud cases worth billions of rupees.

Occasionally, Imran also extended the proverbial hand of friendship to the ruling coalition but linked it with the announcement of the date for fresh elections.

Political analysts believe that it would be extremely difficult for Imran to depart from his populist rhetoric of labelling his opponents as “chor (thief), daku (dacoit) and corrupt” but not impossible as, after all, he shook hand with PML-Q leader Pervaiz Elahi, whom he once called the “biggest bandit” of Punjab.

Meanwhile, PM Shehbaz inaugurated the key initiatives to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Independence of Pakistan.

The youth development initiatives include 20,000 internships for young graduates; uplifting of 20 poorest districts of Pakistan; construction of 250 mini sports complexes, establishment of innovation support fund for entrepreneurs and IT professionals and 75 national top talent scholarships.

The Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives has designed the National Development Internship Programme, envisaging paid on-the-job training for fresh young graduates in various fields.

Under this programme, around 20,0000 internees will be hired in new or ongoing development projects during the current financial year.

An intern will be paid Rs40,000 per month having 16-year and above qualification and Rs30,000 per month for three years diploma holders.

The ministry said that a package for bottom 20 districts of Pakistan – mostly from Balochistan and merged districts of erstwhile FATA – has also been identified on the basis of MPI Index (that ranked districts according to their development deprivation i.e. 90 per cent deprived of basic facilities such as; education, health, water and sanitation) has been designed.

Under PSDP 2022-23, it said, an allocation of Rs684.7 million for 13 poverty reduction schemes has been made. The other initiatives during 2022-23 include; Ehsaas Tahafuz Programme and Ehsaas Delivery Unit; Qarz-e-Hasna based loans ranging from Rs25,000 to Rs100,000 for starting new businesses.

It added that efforts will be made during the next five years to overall improve the socio-economic indicators such as education, health, women empowerment, stunting, malnutrition and food security.

Also, it said, the facilities of sports available to the general public, particularly the youth, will be increased.

Meanwhile, Rs1,000 million have been allocated in PSDP 2022-23 for the construction of 250 mini sports complexes nationwide with the aim of increasing accessibility of sports facilities to the youth.