I don’t want to be PM: Qureshi

MULTAN: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday said the prime minister of Pakistan is Imran Khan and there is a consensus over his leadership.

Talking to journalists here, he said he has no desire to become the prime minister. The problems created in 10 years can’t be solved in nine months. The government is making plans for betterment in the future. He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party plundered the country and made it bankrupt. The PML-N and the PPP looted money from the national exchequer and promoted a culture of borrowed economy. The PTI has inherited a bankrupt economy and is forced to disburse a big chunk of budget for past borrowing, he said. People are facing serious problems in getting services of education and health due to external debt, he added.

The foreign minister said if the PTI gets the opportunity to serve people for 5 years, it will be successful in the public court. He said Pakistan was overburdened with external and domestic debts in the last ten years’ rule of the PPP and the PML-N. The country is passing through a critical juncture which has stopped development. He said the conscious class of the country should extend cooperation to the government. This class brought the PTI into power in the 2018 general elections and now they should play their role in rescuing the country from crisis.

He said the masses trusted the PTI and the party would not betray them at any level. The party would fulfill the hopes of people, he said, adding that the PTI is going to introduce Ehsas Programme in the budget 2018-19 to help deserving people. The programme would introduce 215 policies for the working class and provide jobs besides financial support to women and the poor.

He said the PTI is introducing local body’s empowerment system and the representatives would fully empower taking measures for the welfare of the masses. Local government representatives would not dependable upon legislators. He said the past rulers did not take measures for the development of South Punjab, particularly Multan. The PTI has laid down foundation stone of two key projects in the Nishtar hospital in the first six months of its rule. The Nishtar-II project would serve people of South Punjab, he said.