ISLAMABAD – The talks between the government and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) failed to make progress on Wednesday, as unseen barriers cropped up stopping the forward movement on the implementation of the 10-points agenda given by the main opposition party for its support on the economic reforms.
Talks were held between the government’s team led by Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, and the PML-N team led by Senator Ishaq Dar. After the second round of talks on January 20, both parties had announced that they would finalise recommendations on majority of the issues on January 26. However, the meeting failed to devise any recommendations on the agenda and ended up giving more time to sub-committees to come up with their recommendations.
According to an official source, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Shahid Hafeez Kardar demanded the committee give them a period in which to submit a report on the loans written off on political grounds. Calling the progress on the talks satisfactory, the finance minister later told reporters that both parties wanted to work together with commitment to overcome economic difficulties.
Shaikh said a new schedule for the meetings had been finalised, with the main committee meeting again on January 31 and February 2, and the sub-committees meeting in between to finalise recommendations on a petroleum pricing formula, curbing inflation and rationalising electricity and gas load shedding. The minister said the committee decided to form a one-member commission headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court or a high court to look into the reasons for the hike in sugar prices and give recommendations to stabilise the situation.
On the accountability bill, he said, “We discussed various issues and differences would be narrowed down in the committee’s next meeting”. The sub-committee on the Election Commission reforms would make progress in the next meeting, he said, adding that the most important agenda item of expenditure controls would be discussed in the next meeting.
He said the sub-committee of provincial chief secretaries would meet again under the chairmanship of the finance secretaries to finalise their recommendations on controlling inflation, adding that the sub-committees on petroleum pricing and load shedding would also meet to come up with their recommendations.
Senator Dar said all points were proactive and had been discussed threadbare with an open mind. However, he said the progress on the expenditures would be discussed in the next meeting.
