PM affirms government's commitment to sweeping reforms, structural changes

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said that the government is dedicated to achieving a complete economic recovery through long-overdue reforms, structural adjustments, and a focus on meritocracy.

He was talking to a delegation of overseas Pakistani students selected for the government’s internship program “Uraan Pakistan – Summer Scholars” in Islamabad on Saturday. PM Shehbaz recalled that when his administration took office in 2023, Pakistan faced a severe risk of default, with its future uncertain.

“Most believed Pakistan would default, while a few thought we could avoid this crisis,” he said, noting that he held extensive talks with the IMF managing director, assuring that Pakistan would avoid default and secure the IMF program.

PM Shehbaz said that during that time, the economy was struggling, with inflation soaring to 38 percent and the policy rate standing at 22.5 percent, creating a highly uncertain business environment.

PM Shehbaz said that they had the huge burden and onus to march in unison and work with sincerity of purpose to change the situation.

The joint work paid dividends as now the policy rate was capped under 11 percent. The Uraan Pakistan programme had taken off, he added.

“The road is very challenging as there were long overdue reforms, and the structural changes had not taken place in the last many decades,” he observed, and stressed that Pakistan had to undertake these overdue long structural changes, through untiring and long efforts.

PM Shehbaz also referred to reforms and digitization of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and said that they had shown doors to the corrupt people without being influenced.

To weed out corruption in FBR, he was very clear in his mind and took decisions which had never taken without heeding to a culture of any ‘Sifarish’, he added.

The prime minister said that previously, digitization process in FBR was only confined to papers as no practical step was taken and blamed the corrupt and shrewd elements for hoodwinking the system.

PM Shehbaz said that it did not mean that there was dearth of hardworking and honest bureaucrats who were not given the chance, adding that they had brought forth the best people in FBR, including its chairman, and hired expert consultants.

Now, he said digitization was the hallmark of FBR, where working had been converted from papers to multiple initiatives, including AI, and faceless interaction.

Through enforcement of these measures, the revenue collection had risen from Rs12 billion to more than 50 billion rupees in one year, showing massive tax evasion in one sector alone, he maintained.

The prime minister expressed the hope that students would benefit from the Uraan Pakistan initiative and extended his best wishes for their future.