PM Shehbaz reaffirms govt’s resolve to achieve economic prosperity through ‘bold reforms’

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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday confirmed his government’s commitment to achieve economic prosperity through growing structural reforms, digitalization and accountability.

Addressing a group of Pakistani students, he said, “This road is very difficult because there have been long -term reforms, and structural changes have not happened in the past several decades.”

The Prime Minister emphasized that Pakistan had to make long structural changes through these obligatory and long efforts.

Initially, he pointed out that when the PML -N (PML -N) took charge of the government during 2023, Pakistan faced a serious threat to default and his fate was hanging in a balance.

He said, “The majority saw that Pakistan would be default, while the minority believes that we will avoid this catastrophe,” he said, adding that he spoke of the marathon with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and assured that Pakistan would not get a pre -scheduled program.

The Prime Minister said that during this period, the economy was in a bad state, which is causing inflation to touch 38 % while the policy rate is shaking 22.5 %. The business environment in the country was very skeptical.

The Prime Minister added in his remarks that he has a huge burden and is a huge burden to march to march and to change the situation with sincerity.

He also cited the reforms and digitalization of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and said that he had shown the doors of corrupt people without any affected.

He added that he was very clear in his mind to end corruption in the FBR, and he made decisions that never took care of any ‘saffron’ culture.

The Prime Minister said that earlier, the process of digitalization in the FBR was limited to papers only because no practical action was taken and it blamed corrupt and smart elements for hiding the system.

He said that did not mean that there was a shortage of diligent and honest bureaucrats who were not given the opportunity, adding that he had brought the best people to the FBR, including its chairman, and hired expert advisers.

Now, he said that digitalization is a symbol of the FBR, where the work was converted from papers to a number of steps, including AI and unprecedented interaction.

Through the implementation of these initiatives, the collection of revenue increased from Rs 12 billion to Rs 50 billion a year, in which large -scale tax evasion was demonstrated in only one sector.

“We face a mountain like a long and thorny journey and obstacles, but I assure that we will not refrain from excluding our duties in the service of the nation.”

Responding to a student’s question, he said that due to climate change, Pakistan suffered a lot of losses during the 2022 floods, the economy suffered $ 30 billion losses, despite the fact that the country did not make a percentage of global greenhouse effects.

Responding to a question, the Prime Minister said that during the month of May, Pakistan suffered illegal aggression in India in the backdrop of the Pahalgam incident.

He said that he had made a straightforward proposal to India so that the matter could be investigated by international institutions, but India never commented on the proposal.

He said that as a result of Indian aggression, 55 Pakistanis were martyred and they responded in their defense by down six Indian planes, adding that on May 9 and 10, after the Indian invasion, Pakistan responded with full force and taught the enemy a lesson.

The Prime Minister praised the Armed Forces for showing his professionalism and courage and said that Pakistan won the traditional war.

He maintained that Pakistan’s nuclear program was only for peaceful purposes and for its own defense.