Elaborating the drawbacks in the system prevalent in the country, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that our system has been formed to benefit the elite’ class’ only underscoring that the wrong policies were followed in the past, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The premier was addressing the launching ceremony of the Kamyab Pakistan Programme on Monday under which loans amounting to Rs1,400 billion would be distributed among 3.7 million families across the country.

PM Khan said that he could realize that the lower section of society was facing economic hardships due to inflation. He maintained that the government was trying its best to mitigate the economic sufferings of the poor.

He, however, defended the government decision to raise prices of petroleum products saying that the petrol and diesel prices in Pakistan were still the lowest in the region.

He said the government had reduced the sales levy on the petroleum products and suffered a loss of Rs400 billion. He said that the government was bringing Ahsas Targetted Subsidies Programme under which the government would give direct subsidies to the poor on flour, sugar and ghee. He was of the view that inflation was rising all over the world and dubbed it imported inflation”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ5MZwNpOrk

“A country which has (small) islands of the rich and (vast) ocean of the poor, it cannot make progress,” the premier added.  

Prime Minister Khan said that initiatives like Kamyab Pakistan Programme should have been launched 74 years ago.

He said we were wrong in our perception that the government should collect revenue first then it could make progress.

Giving the example of the Madia state model, he termed it the most successful model in world history. He was optimistic that Pakistan could prosper if it followed the principles of the Madina state.

Imran cited the example of India and China. He said 35 years ago, both countries were equal. But China raised its lower segment of society and became prosperous but India where the number of rich people is very small and poverty is rampant, it still lagged behind. 

The prime minister said that it was very unfortunate that in our country there was not a uniformed syllabus. Only a small section of society comprising rich could get English-medium education and they used to grab lucrative posts. The poor class who would get education in Urdu-medium schools used to succeed in getting only low cadre jobs. 

The Kamyab Pakistan Programme initiative comprises of five components: it will provide interest-free loans to growers; will give loans up to Rs500,000 for business start-ups; will provide finance for the construction of houses under Sasta Ghar Scheme; will grant skilled-based scholarship to youngsters, and Sehat Insaf Card is also part of the Kamyab Programme.

Earlier, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin in a statement termed the programme as a major project of the government aimed at reducing poverty through the empowerment of the deprived segments of the society by supporting them to transform their lives.