ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday admitted that he could not bring “change” in the country he had promised at the time he came to power, due to “faults” in the system.

“In the beginning we wanted to bring change immediately through revolutionary steps, but later realised that our system was incapable of absorbing shock,” the prime minister said while addressing a ceremony held to award certificates to the top 10 best performing ministries and divisions.

The prime minister further said the government and ministries had not given the desired results. “The biggest problem is that there has been no connection between the government and the interest of the country,” he added.

“Are our ministries performing how to stabilise the country through increasing exports and how the condition of the people can be improved, how poverty can be eliminated?” he asked.

Awards certificates to heads of top 10 ministries, divisions on good performance, achievement of targets

The prime minister said increasing exports, finding import substitution and alleviating poverty were significant areas of national interest. He stressed the need for putting in place a system of reward and punishment and said that reforms had been made regarding the powers of the National Accountability Bureau that allowed bureaucrats to take initiatives. After the streamlining of NAB, now bureaucrats have no excuse for not “signing pending files”, he added.

He said resolution of public issues through effective policy-making and good governance was important and asked the ministries to keep the national interest foremost and work on “out of the box solutions” to deliver the most.

The prime minister awarded certificates to the heads of top 10 ministries and divisions on good performance and achievement of targets. These include the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Ministry of Human Rights, Ministry of Industries and Production, National Security Division, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of National Food Security and Research.

PM Khan said the quarterly review of the performance of ministries was a step to develop among them a sense of competition to give their best. He said 1,090 targets had been set by the ministries of which 424 would be achieved this year, including 207 related to governance and 100 to infrastructure.

Some of the prominent cabinet members like Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Information Technology Minister Syed Aminul Haq were not on the top 10 list.

When asked by Dawn about reports that some of the federal ministers and close aides to the prime minister expressed displeasure over what they called “ignoring” the performance of their ministries, Fawad Chaudhry said he was not aware of this, adding that the criteria set for assessing the performance of ministries was based on the number of projects conceived in time as well as revenue generation.

Prime Minister Khan also expressed annoyance over leaking of the names of top 10 ministries before his announcement and said that because of this those ministers who were not on list did not attend the ceremony.

“Shahzad, you made a big mistake by disclosing the names of top 10 ministries. I wanted all ministers to be here to attend the function so that those who have not performed well also turned up and passion of achieving distinction could also develop in them as well,” the prime minister said, chiding his special assistant Arbab Shahzad.

On the occasion, PM Khan lauded the performance of Communications Minister Murad Saeed and said: “Murad, who is the youngest minister, gave the best performance.”

Housing projects, SEZs

Presiding over a meeting on housing, Prime Minister Khan said that over 70,000 housing projects worth Rs1.4 trillion had been approved, which would have an overall impact of Rs7.3 trillion on the construction industry and 1.2 million jobs would be created.

He said it was the PTI government’s huge achievement that out of total 80,000 applications for low-cost housing projects, 35,420 amounting to Rs130 billion had been approved. A total of Rs46bn has been disbursed to 13,407 applicants so far.

“Applications worth Rs7 billion are being received weekly out of which Rs4bn is approved and Rs2bn is being disbursed every week which shows that the devised system is working efficiently,” he added.

The prime minister noted that a 148 per cent increase in housing finance over the last three years and expected approval of Rs517bn till December this year reflected the steps taken by the government to facilitate low-cost housing and construction industry.

A break-up of the government-financed low-cost housing projects was also given during the meeting. According to it, 4,000 units are being constructed in Farash Town, Islamabad, 4000 units in LDA City, 1320 units in Jalozai, 245 units in Raiwind, 324 units in Sargodha and Chiniot and 1800 units in the Angoori Road area of Islamabad.

The meeting was informed that 2,507 projects worth Rs627bn had been registered on FBR Portal under Fixed Tax Regime, which had an impact of Rs3.135tr on the economy.

Presiding over another meeting, PM Khan said incentivising rapid industrialisation through massive investment in special economic zones (SEZs) was the government’s top priority. “Government is focused on attracting maximum foreign direct investment in the country,” he added.

The prime minister was apprised that 112 out of 167 reforms identified by the Board of Investment had been implemented to ensure ease of doing business for all potential investors in SEZs. The remaining 55 reforms will also clear necessary regulatory approvals within a month.

The prime minister directed all the regulatory authorities, including the State Bank of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, to streamline their respective regulatory frameworks to enable the investors to get their issues resolved under one roof in the shortest possible time.

PM Khan also directed them to facilitate the growth of small and medium enterprises (SME) sector which contributes around 25pc to the country’s total exports.

He directed the authorities concerned to immediately resolve all pending issues of the SME sector related to export refinancing facility, payment of duty drawback on local taxes and levies, and financing from banks to address their liquidity crunch.

He asked them to notify five-year export policies for all major sectors, especially textile and SME, in order to lend certainty to the exporters.

The provincial chief secretaries joined the meeting via video link.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2022