ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said the reduction in poverty and uplift in the poor’s living standard would be the yardstick to gauge the success of his government after its five-year term.

“When I will go to the masses after completing my five-year term, my success will be as to how many people have been steered out of poverty and not how many have become richer,” the prime minister said addressing here an MoU signing ceremony between private banks and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), four private banks will provide easy loans to the fishermen to enable them purchase the latest equipment like boats, onshore freezers and others for value addition in their business, besides achieving self-dependence.

Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Special Assistant to the PM Usman Dar and senior management of the four banks attended the event. The representatives of National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Punjab, Bank Al-Falah and Habib Bank, and the Maritime Affairs Ministry signed the documents to provide loans to the fishermen under the Kamyab Jawan Programme.

The prime minister appreciated the initiative aimed at uplifting the fishermen who, he said, usually lived a hard life.

He said the MoU was in light of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s struggle, which was going to complete its 25 years on upcoming Sunday.

The prime minister proudly mentioned the recently published UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) report, which reflected the reduced level of poverty in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province during 2013 to 2018.

Due to the very reason, the PTI got a two-third majority in the next election in the province just because the life of the common man had improved, he remarked.