PM Imran announces Rs446 billion development package for Sindh

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday, during his visit to Sukkur, announced a Rs446 billion development package and programme to uplift 14 districts of Sindh, adding that implementation would take place within a month and people would begin to see its effects.

Addressing a cheque distribution ceremony under the Kamyab Jawan Programme, the prime minister said funds for the development package had been accumulated with “great difficulty by taking money from here and there”.

“But all preparation for this package has been done, including feasibility, and they are ready. So within a month, this package will start coming onto the ground and you will start seeing its effects.”

The premier said he was most happy at the skill trainings which would be provided to the youth under the development programme.

“We have such a great population but we will only be benefited by this population […] when we can teach them skills and give them skilled education,” he said, adding that the population would become an asset instead of a burden if those skills weren’t provided and everything carried on as usual.

“This is a whole effort that we make our youth stand on their feet [and] give them money for any to businesses.”

The prime minister also said that a full effort would be made to provide sports facilities for the youth and and cited the great discrepancy between the numbers of sports grounds in New Zealand and Pakistan despite the former having a much lower population than the latter.

“No matter how talented one is, talent needs grounds to play in. If there are no grounds then what is the use of the talent and the population.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan said the money for the development package was being provided entirely by the federal government and added that initiatives under the package such as the Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway would be a “big benefit to Sindh’s and Pakistan’s people”.

“The more our logistics [and] connectivity [improves] [and] better roads are built the more ease of business in Pakistan improves. So the whole country will benefit from this but especially your area [of Sindh].

“And the [Naj Gaj] dam, so many acres of land will become cultivable so that will benefit the area,” said Prime Minister Imran Khan, referring to the construction of the Nai Gaj dam under the package which will help irrigate 28,800 acres of land.

The prime minister further said cash distribution under the Ehsaas Programme would be extended to 12 million households and that previously, 33 per cent of the total porgramme fund had been spent on the people of Sindh.

He said he was “proud” that the funds had been distributed on the basis of merit, which he described as not seeing voter or provincial affiliation but determining only on the basis of need and poverty.

The premier said he hadn’t ever considered any province or people of Pakistan to not be his own and “all of the country is mine and whichever government is running it, this province [Sindh] is ours too.”

“All areas of Pakistan which have been left behind, [we] will fully help them develop,” said the premier, citing the development packages announced for south Balochistan and the tribal areas.

“Our emphasis is that all policies we make in Pakistan are to bring our lower segment up [and] I again promise my people of Sindh that [we] will put in full effort to improve your circumstances.”

Separately, a statement from his office said the prime minister has announced a “historic” package to end the “decades-long sense of deprivation in Sindh”.