Govt compelled to prepare budget under IMF watch: PM
Pakistan
Says government has already ordered abolishing the Pakistan Public Works Department
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday admitted that his government was compelled to prepared budget under the watch of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to the prevailing economic conditions.
The prime minister, responding to a point of order by an opposition member at the National Assembly, said the global lender would give its reply today (June 25) and “hopefully there would be a good news”.
He said that the tangible results of the government’s ongoing efforts to reduce its expenditures would appear within around one and a half months.
The premier said the government had already ordered abolishing the Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak PWD), citing massive corruption in its development budget.
He told the House that a rightsizing committee had been formed under Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and expressed the hope that he would come up with tangible results within almost one and a half months.
The prime minister said that the PML-N-led government always gave a special focus on the uplift of South Punjab by providing the budget and employment higher than the population ratio. Besides, a 10 percent increased share was given to the region in the laptop as well as PM Rozgar schemes and a stipend for girls students was raised from Rs 200-Rs1000 under the Zevar Taleem Program.
Moreover, he said the federal government had also funded mega infrastructure projects in South Punjab including Lodhran-Khanewal Motorway and Dera Ghazi Khan-Muzaffargarh Motorway.
