President Mamnoon Hussain on Sunday urged all the political and religious parties to support the federal and Sindh governments’ efforts for maintaining peace and security in Karachi.
“Economic prosperity in Pakistan is not possible without maintaining peace and security in Karachi,” said the president while talking to reporters at the Quaid’s mausoleum.
He appreciated the Sindh government for carrying out operation against criminals in the port city and sought cooperation of citizens and media to make it a success. Mamnoon said he was alive to his constitutional role and would make best efforts for harmony among the provinces and the federation, national unity and solidarity, besides working for the country’s prosperity and sovereignty. Replying to a question, he said a president had no political role but a fatherly one.
Mamnoon said he would work for the betterment of the entire country, especially Sindh. He would visit the province frequently and meet its people. He would support the Sindh governor and the chief minister in their efforts for the development and prosperity of the province, he assured. He said that he had flown to Karachi specially to pay homage to the Father of the Nation.
Answering another question, the president said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his United States’ visit would raise the issue of drone attacks, which, he said, had proved counter-productive in the war against terrorism and maintaining peace and security in the country.
He said the prime minister would discuss ways and means to increase bilateral trade and investment, and to enhance bilateral economic cooperation on a large scale. He would also talk on issues of mutual interest including withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan.
Mamnoon said the Pak-US bilateral ties had seen many ups and downs in the past, but the same were now improving. He said the last government was responsible for the growing inflation as its wrong policies and decisions had damaged the country’s economy and its trade balance causing serious financial problems. The present government has taken certain important and positive steps due to which the inflation rate would soon decrease, he added.
“During the last government, unfortunately a huge quantity of currency notes were printed to ease the financial pressure,” he remarked. He expressed his full confidence in the capability and commitment of Federal Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, who he hoped, would steer the country out of economic crisis under the guidance of Nawaz Sharif.
He said it was not possible for any government to continue providing electricity to the people at low rate after purchasing it at high price like Rs 18 per unit.
When his attention was drawn to the violation of Line of Control by India, the president said Indian opposition parties were playing a provocative role to score political points as general elections were approaching there. However, he was optimistic about improvement in relations between the two countries through dialogue and frequent interactions at different levels.
Earlier, he offered fateha at the Mazar of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and laid a floral wreath.
