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Thursday, May 22, 2008
ON BOARD PM'S SPECIAL AIRCRAFT: The economic experts of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani-led coalition regime are currently working on a 'relief package' to be announced in the upcoming budget to provide relief to the people at large who are facing innumerable problems due to the soaring prices of the daily use items.
This was disclosed by the prime minister in a candid interaction with accompanying journalists while traveling back from Cairo to Islamabad on Tuesday night after his four-day visit to Egypt.
He said the biggest challenge for him today was to provide relief to the people. "My biggest worry is how to give relief to my people and my team is already working on it," he maintained. Gilani said the prime objective of his government was to improve fiscal policy focus to cater for the poorest of the poor. "Our policy is to improve our fiscal policies and economic indicators." He was confident that they would be successful in this regard. "We have a big challenge, we have accepted it and we will Inshallah be successful," he maintained, making it clear that he would not indulge in the rhetoric of previous governments that they had "inherited" the problems.
When asked whether his statement ëwe do not want to rock the boatí on the question of reinstatement of the deposed judges at the press conference in Sharm El Sheikh was a reference to the coalition or the president, he said, "It was with reference to the overall situation of the country." He indirectly conveyed that it was to basically allay fears of potential foreign investors and to send the signal that the government in Pakistan was stable.
Prime Minister Gilani also talked about his plan for setting up a 'Land Bank' to address the housing problem and to encourage land developers. The bank would offer loans to people as well as private investors for low-cost housing schemes. He said it would also facilitate foreign investors in terms of acquiring land, providing good infrastructure and would guard against corrupt practices.
He pointed out that the government of Saudi Arabia was very keen to invest "in a big way" immediately in the housing and agriculture sectors in Pakistan. This interest was conveyed to him by the Saudi minister of commerce, who led the Saudi delegation at the World Economic Forum in Sharm El Shiekh.
The prime minister said he would instruct his team to keep in touch with the Saudi minister. He said that in the wake of global food crisis, investment in the agriculture sector was most needed at this juncture and the government would offer incentives to encourage it. "Developing the agriculture sector is the only solution to the food crisis," he asserted.
The Egyptian leaders, during their meeting with him, had also conveyed that they were equally interested in investing in land development and housing sector in Pakistan besides they offered cooperation in the field of energy, he stated.
Prime Minister Gilani disclosed that he had directed the law ministry to amend the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance to ensure that the accountability courts could function as a part of the existing judicial institutions. Noting that instructions had been given to expedite the process, he observed that the NAB law created a parallel system where the bureau was answerable to the chief executive thus creating a legal anomaly leading to injustice.
"The NAB should not be under the chief executive but should come under the judiciary," he emphatically stated. Referring to his own five-year-long imprisonment in a NAB case for alleged misuse of authority, he said it was highly unjust that he faced imprisonment no less than a murderer sentenced in Criminal Justice System. However, Gilani underscored that he was not a vindictive person and did not hold any grudge against those who were responsible for his incarceration. He revealed that he had personally intervened just three days prior to his departure for Egypt to prevent an adverse move against the NAB court judge, who might have been responsible for his imprisonment.
Gilani also shared with the media his plan for jail reforms and said it was a high priority of his government. While stating that his government was already working on jail reforms, the prime minister said he would soon visit the Adaila Jail, referring to it as his "second home".
In a move that would name jails as 'reformatory centres', he pointed out that 80 per cent of prisoners were under trial. The prime minister said having suffered imprisonment for half a decade he felt the pain and desperation of the people behind the bars.
Giving an overview of his first visit abroad and meetings with leaders on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East in Sharm El Sheikh, he said it was good. Responding to a question by the state-run TV channel reporter, Gilani consciously avoided the standard official practice of characterising every prime ministerial visit abroad as a "very successful" trip. In a lighter vein, he added, "Since my childhood I have been hearing that every visit of a prime minister is very successful. Seeing is believing and as they say, actions speak louder than words."
Gilani said the focus of his meeting with US President Bush was largely on closer defence and security cooperation and intelligence sharing for better coordination in the context of war against terrorism. The issue of global food crisis was also an important talking point. He said President Bush had responded positively to his request for greater US investment in the energy sector in Pakistan to help meet the energy deficit in the country.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
