Rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have been forced to leave North Waziristan due to Operation Zarb-e-Azb is the government’s top priority said Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday.
The minister congratulated Pakistan’s High Commissioner-designates to Australia and United Kingdom, Naila Chohan and Syed Ibne Abbas respectively who called on him at the Finance Ministry and said that he was confident that they would fulfill their responsibilities in the best interest of Pakistan.
The minister directed the HC-designates to make efforts to attract investors from their respective countries of assignment, adding that it is the policy of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led government to promote foreign investment in the country.
The minister told Chohan said that Pakistan would like to strengthen ties with Australia by promoting cooperation through trade and investment.
“We would like to utilise their technical assistance in mining and agriculture so that the output in these sectors could be maximized,” said Dar.
“We would like to welcome Australian exporters who have shown interest in LNG export to Pakistan as solving the energy crisis is the government’s top priority.”
The relief and reconstruction efforts will require around $1.5 to $2 billion and “we will ensure that this work is performed with highest level of transparency and commitment”.
“We would like to establish a committee to look after the reconstruction activities and we have already allocated Rs 100 million as seed money for this purpose. We would also like other countries to participate as Pakistan is waging a war for the sake of peace of the entire globe.”
The government is striving hard to achieve macro-economic stability. Economy has shown positive results despite setbacks due to the current political situation of the country but we would soon recover and would be on the road to progress again, assured Dar.
“Our government is committed to tolerance and respect for the legal rights of the people of this country. This is why we are trying to disperse the protesters without using any force. We hope that things will be normal very soon and this is our message to the international community,” said the minister.
“We will send a list of our economic achievements and medium term plan to all Pakistani ambassadors in different countries so that they can build a strong case for inviting investment from all over the world to Pakistan,” said the minister.
The meeting was also attended by senior officials of the Finance Ministry.
