ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Federal Minister for Finance & Revenue Senator Ishaq Dar has underlined the need for political parties to sign a Charter of Economy to steer the Country out of economic challenges.
In his Federal Budget 2023-24 speech on the floor of the National Assembly on Monday, the minister endorsed MNA Dr. Nafisa Shah’s suggestion for drafting a Charter of Economy and stated that deliberations were done in 2013-14-15-16 for drafting it, as in 2002 a Charter of Democracy was drafted but due to some military interventions and Constitutional amendments a few of its propositions couldn’t be adopted.
Nevertheless, a Charter of Economy in the next Fiscal Year 2023-24 should be drafted and its safe to say that the economy of this Country will improve from now onwards, he said.
Ishaq Dar pointed out that the quagmire this time is bigger than the one witnessed back in 1998-99.
While addressing the concerns raised by Dr. Nafisa Shah regarding the rehabilitation, reconstruction and relief efforts in Sindh as the floods caused hundreds of thousands of residents to vacate their homes and destroyed a large portion of Infrastructure, Ishaq Dar stated that Rs 80 billion have been distributed to the distressed families through BISP, and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has also already distributed essential relief items worth Rs 12 billion among the families.
The finance minister also stated that as per the reports of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Planning the total economic loss is worth US$ 30.3 billion.
The minister stated that in the Prime Minister’s Donors Conference, attended by UN Secretary General and our Federal Foreign Minister, cash donations collected were less than US$ 400 Million while 50 percent of funds were in the shape of loans.
However, the reconstruction of Infrastructure will take 3-4 years and a meeting will be conducted today to finalize the strategy and to initiate the implementation process.
Senator Ishaq Dar assured that the infrastructure construction will be done on (4FT) Internationally recognized standards for disaster prone areas and out of US$ 16 billion received for rehabilitation and reconstruction, US$ 11 billion will be spent on the reconstruction of infrastructure and rehabilitation of Sindh.
