‘Reconciliation, not confrontation’: PM Shehbaz renews pledge to revive economy as PDM marks a year in power

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif assured on Tuesday that “sincere” efforts were underway to revive Pakistan’s economy and recalled challenges faced by his government during the past year as the federal coalition marked a year in power.

Last year, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) managed to woo PTI and allied lawmakers as they began a no-confidence move against Imran Khan. His term as premier came to an end on April 10 as the opposition’s no-trust motion against him succeeded, with 174 members out of the 342 voting in its favour.

The next day, Shehbaz Sharif secured 174 votes in a one-sided election in the NA and was named the prime minister after the PTI announced the en masse resignation of its lawmakers.

The PDM government’s time in power has been marked by record inflation, and economists fear the country’s economy “is going off the rails.”

On completing a year in power today, the premier shared his perspective regarding the challenges and difficulties faced by the government during this time in a Twitter thread.

He said that the no-confidence vote against the Imran-led government was “unprecedented not because PDM came to power but because almost all of Pakistan’s political forces came together to use the forum of Parliament to vote out an unpopular government through constitutional means”.

“The coming together of political parties with different manifestos for a common national cause represents a major step forward in the country’s political evolution. Reconciliation and cooperation, not confrontation and vendetta mark the new politics post-April ’22,” he tweeted.

PM Shehbaz said that the incumbent leadership had managed to keep Pakistan’s economy afloat despite “economic landmines” laid out by the PTI chairman and global fuel and food supply lines.

“All predictions of default have turned out to be false alarms. Sincere efforts are underway to revive the economy.”

The premier shared that the coalition government had been “at pains” to repair, rebuild and deepen Pakistan’s diplomatice ties which he said had dealt a “severe blow” by the “Niazi regime”.

“I can inform people that over the last one year, we have largely succeeded in establishing Pakistan’s credibility as a partner & friend,” he assured.

PM Shehbaz also mentioned last year’s devastating floods, saying that his government’s rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts and mobilisation of international community had been acknowledged by the world as “outstanding”.

“Government employed climate diplomacy to present Pakistan’s case on the international stage. As Chair of G77 plus China, we were instrumental in the establishment of loss & damage fund. Pledges of USD 9 billion at Geneva moot are evidence of our successful diplomacy,” he highlighted.

In the last one year, the prime minister went on to say, we have made efforts to diversify the energy mix with an aim to provide relief to the citizens. The renewed focus on solar, hydel, and coal power projects is aimed at replacing the costlier sources of power generation with cheaper ones, he said.

Mentioning the sky-high inflation in the country, PM Shehbaz said that the government had expanded social safety net and provided targeted subsidies.

Furthermore, he recalled Pakistan’s exit from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list and credited the success to the “excellent inter-ministerial coordination as well as support extended by our military leadership”.

It was a long journey but sustained efforts made it possible, the PM said.

“Building on the public transport infrastructure, govt, since its inception in April last year, focused on early completion of the development and transport infrastructure projects in Islamabad,” he added, pointing out that the idea was to provide ease, comfort and affordable mobility to the people.