Taking the federal cabinet into confidence on the Abbottabad incident, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Wednesday urged all democratic forces to show maturity and wisdom in addressing national issues. Condemning terrorism and violation of the country’s sovereignty by the US forces, the federal cabinet called for unity among all political forces to overcome the challenges being faced by the nation.
Welcoming MQM and PML-Q ministers, Gilani said he strongly believed that politics of confrontation needed to be shunned and all democratic forces needed to show sincerity of purpose, maturity and wisdom in addressing national issues. He said the country was beset with economic and security challenges that could be addressed if all political forces worked together. Gilani said Pakistan’s economic situation was improving and the foreign exchange reserves were at their highest, with remittances from abroad standing at all-time high $9 billion up till April 2011.
Referring to the Abbottabad incident, the prime minister said he had given an elaborate policy statement in the National Assembly and the Senate, and said a joint session of parliament was also being held to discuss it. Senior Minister Pervaiz Elahi said since the day the PML-Q gave the prime minister a vote of confidence, his party was committed to extending all possible support to the democratic government to help it complete its term. Keeping in view the current circumstances and realising the fact that the government needed political support to face national challenges, the PML-Q decided to join the government.
Earlier, Minister for Production Amir Muqam boycotted the meeting in protest against the bifurcation of his office into two independent ministries. A source told Pakistan Today that Muqam did not attend the meeting and gave PML-Q President Shujaat Hussain an ultimatum that he would resign from the cabinet if his grievance was not redressed within a few days. Later, briefing reporters Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said the main agenda for the meeting was the Abbottabad incident.
She said the cabinet also took stock of the status of implementation of its decisions pertaining to the Finance Division during the last three years.
The cabinet also approved the decisions taken by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of its meetings on April 11 and 26. She said during the cabinet meeting, a detailed presentation was given by the Ministry of Finance on the Consumer Price Index in the country to oversee and discuss the trend of prices of essential commodities. She said the finance secretary informed the cabinet that inflation was currently stagnant, adding that the government was determined to reduce it to single digit.
The information minister said the cabinet was also briefed in detail about the outline of a new strategy under consideration for the budget. The Budget Strategy Paper 2011-2014 was presented during the meeting by the Finance Division, she said. The cabinet was informed that despite formidable and devastated floods, the economy was bouncing back and there were encouraging developments that augur well for its future performance of the economy. Firdous said the cabinet was informed that exports of goods had increased by 25 percent in the last nine months and at this pace, were likely to cross $24 billion.
“Remittances are also showing historic performance and are likely to cross $11 billion while Foreign Reserves stand at $17.5 billion,” she said.
Firdous told reporters that the cabinet approved the Budget Strategy Paper 2011-2014 presented by the Ministry of Finance which was prepared in consultation with all the stakeholders. “To revive growth at the earliest, the paper aims at measures such as containing fiscal deficit to 4.5 percent of the GDP in 2011-12 and thereafter to further reduce it by 0.5 percent annually and to raise tax-to-GDP ratio, estimated at 9.1 percent during this year, and raise it to 10.3 percent over the next three years.”
To a question, Firdous said some political parties wanted to review Pakistan’s relations with the US, adding that there was a need to evolve consensus on the issue. She said that the government was trying to announce the federal budget 2011-12 by May 28 and all the stakeholders were being taken into confidence.
