ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday praised his administration for completing one year in power amid “massive challenges and difficulties,” adding the coming together of different political parties to form a coalition setup marked the beginning of a new era in politics based on reconciliation and cooperation.
Sharif took oath as the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan on April 11, 2022, following the ouster of ex-premier Imran Khan from office in a no-confidence vote. Khan accused the coalition government and the former army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, of hatching a regime change conspiracy against his government in connivance with the United States.
He has since been agitating against the administration in Islamabad while his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and its allies dissolved the legislative assemblies in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces to push for early elections. The move led to a tussle between the country’s judiciary and the government over fresh elections which further deepened the political turmoil amid a major economic crisis in the country’s history.
Notwithstanding the challenges that the South Asian country faced over the last year, Sharif praised his government for tackling the problems and saving the economy from default by practicing the politics of reconciliation.
“Today marks the completion of one year since I took oath as PM of a coalition government,” he wrote in a Twitter post.
“The passage of no-confidence vote against Imran Niazi’s government was unprecedented not because PDM [Pakistan Democratic Movement] came into 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 prime minister added.
“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 & cooperation, not confrontation & vendetta mark the new politics post-April ‘22.”
Discussing the economic situation of the country in the wake of a balance-of-payments crisis, soaring inflation, historic currency depreciation, and dwindling forex reserves, Sharif said that despite that the “economic land mines” laid by Khan during his tenure, Pakistan’s economy continued to stay afloat.
“All predictions of default have turned out to be false alarms,” he said. “Sincere efforts are underway to revive the economy.”
He also lauded his government for repairing, rebuilding, and deepening Pakistan’s diplomatic relations with foreign countries, while also acknowledging the government’s relief and rehabilitation efforts following the devastating floods of 2022, which displaced 33 million people, washed away swathes of agricultural lands, and incurred estimated losses worth $30 billion.
“The 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 the loss & damage fund. Pledges of USD 9 billion at the Geneva moot are evidence of our successful diplomacy,” he added.
He said that over the last year, the government made efforts to diversify the energy mix with the aim to provide relief to its citizens and renew its focus on solar, hydel, and coal power projects to replace the costlier sources of power generation with cheaper ones.
“Under the watch of the PDM government, Pakistan managed to exit the FATF [Financial Action Task Force] grey list, thanks 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,” he said.
The prime minister also said that since coming into power, the coalition government revamped the country’s public transport infrastructure and focused on the early completion of the development and transport infrastructure projects in Islamabad.
“The idea was to provide ease, comfort & affordable mobility to people,” he said.
In response to Sharif’s statement, Khan’s close aide Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the only solution to the country’s ongoing problems was for Sharif and his administration to step down and hold general elections in the country.
“You shouldn’t be clinging on to your office anyway,” he said while describing the prime minister as “guest” who was only retaining power “for a few more days.”