Coalition govt’s one year has been a time of challenges: PM

Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday said that the today at the completion of one year of his premiership, the time has been of massive challenges and difficulties.

Turning to twitter he presented his perspective of one year and wrote: “The passage of No-Confidence Vote against Imran Niazi's government was unprecedented.”

Shehbaz Sharif said that it was not because Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) came into power but because almost all of Pakistan's political forces came together to use the forum of Parliament to vote out an unpopular government through constitutional means.

“The coming together of political parties with different manifestos for a common national cause represents a major step forward in the country's political evolution,” said the premier.

He stated that reconciliation and cooperation, not confrontation and vendetta mark the new politics post-April '22.

Referring to Pakistan’s economy that he said continued to ‘stay afloat’, despite the economic landmines laid by Imran Khan and disruptions in global fuel and food supply lines.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president continued as: “All predictions of default have turned out to be false alarms. Sincere efforts are underway to revive the economy”.

Coalition government has been at pains to repair, rebuild and deepen Pakistan's diplomatic relations that were dealt a severe blow by Niazi regime, Sharif wrote.

“I can inform people that over the last one year, we have largely succeeded in establishing Pakistan's credibility as a partner and friend,” the prime minister added.

He said the decisiveness with which the government undertook rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts during floods last year provided social protection to millions of people and mobilized international community has been acknowledged by the world as ‘outstanding’.

The former chief minister of Punjab stated that government employed climate diplomacy to present Pakistan's case on the international stage.

“As Chair of G77 plus China, we were instrumental in the establishment of loss and damage fund,” Shehbaz said adding that the pledges of USD 9 billion at Geneva moot are evidence of our successful diplomacy.

He said that they have made efforts to diversify the energy mix with an aim to provide relief to the citizens in one year.

Shehbaz Sharif wrote that the renewed focus on solar, hydel, and coal power projects is aimed at replacing the costlier sources of power generation with cheaper ones.

Referring to the ongoing high inflation he said it has hit people globally and the responsible factors are ‘Geo-strategic rivalries, increase in prices of the fuel and food commodities and historic floods’.

To deal with the impact of inflation government has expanded social safety net and provided targeted subsidies, said PM.

“Under the watch of the PDM government, Pakistan managed to exit the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list,” thanks to the excellent inter-ministerial coordination as well as support extended by our military leadership. It was a long journey but sustained efforts made it possible, said Shehbaz Sharif.

He stated that since the inception of government in April last year it “focused on early completion of the development and transport infrastructure projects in Islamabad,” adding that the idea was to provide ease, comfort and affordable mobility to the people.

Today marks the completion of one year since I took oath as PM of a coalition government. This has been a time of massive challenges & difficulties. Here's my perspective on this year: 1/n

— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) April 11, 2023