Govt approves construction of Danish varsity with £190m received from UK

ISLAMABAD: The Shehbaz Sharif-led government has approved the construction of a Danish University with the help of 190 million pounds received from the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) during the tenure of former premier Imran Khan.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also constituted a high-powered committee under Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar. It comprises National Security Adviser Lt-Gen Asim Malik, who is the DG ISI, and others to evolve a consensus among the Centre and provinces for setting aside financial resources for the construction of water storages/dams in the aftermath of water aggression from India. The committee is mandated to devise a strategy within 72 hours and implement its decision to divert resources for combating Indian water aggression. This was disclosed by Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday on the occasion of the launch of 13th Five Year Plan and Monthly Development Update at a news conference along with Chief Economist Dr Imtiaz Ahmed.

It envisages ambitious targets on infrastructure and environment in five years, including raising Electric Vehicle share to 25 per cent, nearly doubling water storage capacity, GHG emissions cut by 50 per cent, renewable energy capacity increase by 60 per cent, expansion of national road and rail networks by 35 per cent and urban green spaces’ increase by 20 per cent.

The Five-Year Plan envisages that the real GDP growth would be increased from 2.68 percent in the outgoing fiscal to 6 percent by 2028-29. The GDP growth has been envisaged at 4.2 percent in FY2025-26, 5.1 percent in 2026-27, 5.7 percent in 2027-28 and in the fifth year 6 percent in 2028-29. The growth in agriculture sector has been envisaged slow and steady in the coming five years projected to touch from 0.6 percent in the outgoing fiscal to 5.1 percent by 2028-29. The industrial growth will go up to 6.9 percent by 2028-29 while services sector is expected to increase up to 6.2 percent by 2028-29. The exports target has been set at $63 billion in five years, inflation to be reduced to 6.2 percent, foreign direct investment to rise by 30 per cent, unemployment rate to be under 5 per cent and increase in industrial production by 40 per cent. For the social sector, the 13th Five Year Plan envisages doubling of education spending to 4 percent, halving poverty to 12 percent population living below the poverty line, reducing infant mortality to 40 per 1,000, and universal access to primary healthcare, increasing literacy rate to 85 per cent and gender parity in education enrollment.

On the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the next budget, he said that the SDGs Achievement Programme funding was increased from Rs50 to Rs70 billion as recommended by a committee constituted by the PM and the HEC budget was reduced because the provinces possessed surpluses in revenues compared to the Centre.

The minister said that the size of Pakistan’s economy was projected to touch $600 billion in five years period and by 2035 they were eyeing economy to the tune of $1 trillion. He said remittances went up by $10 billion in the last one decade increasing from $27 billion to $37 billion despite the fact that one political party had asked overseas Pakistanis to stop sending money to the country.