Cut in markup to facilitate business community: Qureshi

MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday urged the opposition parties to avoid politics and criticism as it was a crucial time to fight together against Covid-19 pandemic.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan has set up a special fund for fighting the pandemic. A large number of people are donating amounts as they reposed confidence on him (the PM),” Qureshi said while talking to journalists on the eve of handing over safety kits to the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) in fight against coronavirus here.

Qureshi said the Foreign Office staff donated over Rs 10 million in the PM special fund. He hailed matchless services of the doctors for fighting on frontline against pandemic. He remarked that Pakistan Foreign Office Women Association (PFOWA) donated 1000 N95 masks, protective kits, gloves, and shields for doctors of Multan.

He observed that digitalisation process was in progress in Foreign Office and FO introduced an application for 117 missions in various countries to keep in contact with Foreign Office round the clock.

The minister said that the poor are being given financial assistance without any political affiliation at 17,000 different centres across the country.

In Multan 138,319 persons received financial assistance of Rs 12,000 each so far, Qureshi said adding that the programme was heading forward in smooth way.

Qureshi said that the government was opening of different sectors gradually in order to address the issue of unemployment and create new economic opportunities. “The recent reduction in markup would also facilitate the business community and thus create more jobs. The single digit mark would help leading more investment, similarly, the package for Construction Industry would also provide jobs to labourers,” he said. Qureshi hailed the performance of Punjab government and stated that good work must be acknowledged.