Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday sought US influence for the disbursement of the next tranche of International Monetary Fund (IMF) in March 2011 so that the government could prepare budget for next fiscal year.
"The US influence would be crucial for the disbursement of the next IMF tranche in March this year to help his government prepare for the next fiscal year''s Budget," said Gilani during a meeting with the visiting US President advisor on economy, David Lipton, who called on him, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister Secretariat.
He also appreciated US government''s confidence in the Pakistan''s economic system and hoped that other donor countries will also follow the suit as his government had put in place the third party verification and beneficiaries'' assessment as well as for public disclosure of programme performance in order to increase donor and public trust in the utilisation of the foreign assistance.
The Prime Minister added that while the government was working hard to improve internal controls for transparency, the concerns should not become a pretext for withholding or stopping the much needed support, which has already been pledged by the donors to Pakistan.
In this context, he added that the floods affected people cannot be made to wait for their early rehabilitation. He said that as far as the government of Pakistan was concerned, it had already drastically cut its development and non-development expenditure to divert the resources for providing relief to the flood victims.
The Prime Minister said that his government was committed to introduce and implement economic reforms. The RGST and flood tax measures had already been introduced and passed through the Senate and intensive consultations were now being held with the major political parties of the country to build the national consensus for their passage through the National Assembly. The Prime Minister said that the political dialogue has been initiated over other national challenges like governance, institution building and security situation of the country.
Gilani underlined that despite Pakistan''s current economic difficulties, his government will remain steadfast in its commitment to war against terror. He highlighted the positive trend in the national economy as a result of steps taken by his government like substantial increase in exports, record home remittances and all time high foreign exchange reserves, which he said, were reflective of the sound economic fundamentals of the country.
David Lipton commended the Prime Minister for clearly communicating the message to the rest of the world that his government was not undertaking the reforms because the donor community so wanted but was doing it in the long-term interest of Pakistan''s economy.
He stated that US recognised the government of Pakistan''s efforts to overcome security and economic challenges and agreed with the Prime Minister that any economic strategy can only be palatable for the people in a democratic system when embedded into a political strategy.
He appreciated that government of Pakistan in true democratic traditions was doing its utmost to take all the political stakeholders in the country on board through the process of consultations for the introduction of much needed economic reforms in the country.
He further stated that the success of the political consultation process in the country and signs of improving economy would attract international community''s support to Pakistan. He assured the Prime Minister that US administration will remain engaged with Pakistan in confronting the two major challenges to Pakistan''s economy ie budget and power deficit. He said that he was looking forward to Pakistan-US Energy Dialogue later in the day to fast track the energy projects being funded under the Kerry Lugar Assistance Programme and for reviewing the electricity demand and supply situation in the country on remedial measures.
Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Minister for Petroleum Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Water & Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, Minister of State for Finance & Economic Affairs Ms Hina Rabbani Khar, Senator Syeda Sughra Imam, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq, US Ambassador Cameron Munter, and other senior officials were also present in the meeting.-PR
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