LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday that there was no place for incompetent and unproductive ministers in the cabinet.
The PM held meeting with provincial ministers in Lahore, where he said that opposition’s work was to criticise while the government’s role was to serve.
“Pakistan Citizens Portal has been opened and the public can now hold us accountable. Corruption will be under check and hard work is required for the purpose” said the prime minister.
The PM said that NEPRA suggested an increase of more than Rs 3 on electricity rates, but the government approved hike of Rs 1.27, not putting burden on the poor. PM Imran said that the entire focus was on improving governance, asking the ministers to priortise serving the people. “PTI wants to make Pakistan a welfare state. Education and health are first most priority of the government, said the prime minister.
The provincial ministers reposed their confidence in the leadership of the prime minister and gave recommendations for improving different sectors, according to an official statement.
Separately, Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday said Pakistan could greatly benefit from Chinese expertise in the agriculture sector and opined that strengthening cooperation in agriculture would be one of the priority agenda of his forthcoming visit to China.
Chairing a meeting on agriculture at the PM’s Office, he was informed that the country’s agriculture had been stagnant for the past many decades and little work was done to assist the farmers in crop diversification, enhancement of yield and mechanization of agriculture sector. It was shared that research was totally ignored in the past resulting in overall deterioration of the sector, while low agricultural output resulted in greater reliance on import that led to soaring up of the import bill.
Expressing concern over the existing state of affairs, the prime minister said boosting agricultural sector was a major plank of agenda of the PTI government.
He said there was a need to support farmers and help them in adopting best practices along with requisite support in provision of finances and mechanization process.
He was told that the existing trend could be effectively checked and reversed with short-term measures and work on long-term strategy could be started immediately with concerted efforts of all stakeholders.
He was also given a detailed briefing on the existing situation vis-a-vis wheat, rice and sugarcane crop along with a comparative analysis with the neighboring countries and other producers with regards to production, exports and imports.
Imran Khan was informed that as part of PTI’s agenda of placing greater focus on the agriculture sector, various projects were being planned to increase crop yield and productivity to shift focus towards exports and encouraging crop diversification.
Published in Daily Times, October 31st 2018.
