PM Shehbaz Sharif says we don't have money to buy oil, gas

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has said Pakistan doesn’t have money to buy oil and gas, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

He was addressing a day-long pre-budget business conference in Islamabad.

PM Shehbaz Sharif said since Pakistan’s inception 75 years back, the economic development in the initial 25 years and the economic development after that have a “stark” difference.

There can be no economic stability without political stability in the country, he said, stressing the need for a “Charter of Economy”, which would lead to long-term stability.

“No matter what happens, whichever party comes into power, the goals set in the ‘Charter of Economy’ will remain unchanged.”

Moving on, the prime minister said there was a need to develop rural areas as when people travel from underdeveloped to developed cities, they become a burden on the resources of that place.

Comparing the country’s IT industry with that of India’s, the prime minister said that the latter generates around $200 billion while Pakistan’s industry is hovering around $2.5 billion. “We must go for special export industrial zones,” he added.

The PM went on to say that the government will make well-structured industrial zones. “To increase the export, the developed zone should be handed over to the investors to work on it. We need to fix ambitious targets.”