Approached IMF under compulsion, will have to go to IMF again if tough decisions not made: PM

QUETTA (92 News) - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the government had approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under compulsion and it would have to go to the IMF again if touch decisions were not made.

Addressing a ceremony of the Kissan Package in Quetta on Monday, he said that loans had put their next generations at pawn. “Approaching the IMF after three years will amount to death by drowning,” he added.

APP adds: PM Shehbaz Sharif said that under an agreement had been reached between the Federal and Balochistan governments, a total of 28,000 agricultural tube-wells in the province would be shifted to solar system within three months.

Talking to media after the agreement signing ceremony, the prime minister said the federal government would provide 70 percent funds while 30 percent would be contributed by the provincial government for Rs55 billion solarization project.

He also met the provincial cabinet in which the federal ministers and Governor Balochistan Jafar Khan Mandokhel and Chief Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti were present.

The prime minister tasked the chief minister to complete the solarization project within in three months. He opined that the completion of project would ensure prosperity of the farmers and bring a large area of cultivable land under farming, adding that with functioning of the solar powered tube-wells, the farmers would get uninterrupted power supply throughout the day.

During his address to the provincial cabinet, he termed the agreement as ‘a deep structured change’ firmly rooted in the government’s conceived reforms agenda, he said that a huge sum of Rs500 billion would be saved form going down the drain.

The prime minister said that the federal government would be absolved of paying Rs80-90 billion burden which was provided as subsidy to the province due to non-payment of bills and still the farmers community was getting 2 to 6 hours power supply. “With the solarization process, the issue would be resolved forever,” he expressed the hope.