ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday presidential candidate of ruling coalition, Asif Ali Zardari, would be elected with an overwhelming majority on March 9.
Speaking at the dinner reception hosted in honour of coalition parties, the prime minister urged the ruling coalition to seek vote for the president from everyone so that he is elected on 9th March by overwhelming majority.
The premier said that the entire world is watching that how the political parties with different mandate would solve the problems of the people. He said that he has been chairing meetings for the last four days on the economy. He said that the economic challenges are of humongous and gas and power sector circular debt is Rs5 trillion and PIA debt stood at Rs835 billion. He said that annual losses of the power sector are Rs500 billion. He deplored that tax base (tax-to-GDP) is dismally low at 9.8 per cent.
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Shehbaz Sharif said that genuine refund claims of exporters have been cleared. All the losses of loss-making entities are being paid by taking loans, whereas, Rs1.7 trillion taxes are pending in courts due to litigations. He said that collusion of some elements of vested interests draining the economy. The prime minister said that we have to work to bring about improvement collectively; otherwise, history and future generations would not forgive us. He said that those times have gone when the friendly countries were helping Pakistan.
Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also spoke on the occasion and stated that the economic challenges are serious but not impossible.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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