Govt To Reduce Import Bill Of Food Items: State Minister

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Oct, 2021 ) :State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said that government has decided to bring maximum land under plough to reduce import bill of food items.

Addressing a PTI Workers' Convention at Model Colony No.2 at Sitiana Road here on Saturday night, he said that Pakistan had 220 million acres of land but crops were being cultivated over only 50 million acres. He said that PTI government had decided to bring maximum land under cultivation of various crops to cater domestic food requirements. In this connection, olive and palm oil trees were being planted over huge area to reduce import bill of edible items. The government had also earmarked Rs.1 billion for this project and now Pakistan will soon get place among top 10 countries of the world where palm oil and olive trees were cultivated at a large scale.

Farrukh Habib said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was committed to transform Pakistan into a welfare state on the pattern of Riyasat-e-Madina where basic amenities would be provided to the masses at their door steps.

He said that Pakistan was at bankruptcy stage when PTI came into power, adding only 15 days reserves were left by previous rulers. However, Prime Minister Imran Khan and his team worked day and night and overcome the deficit and now our economy grows 4 percent while national exports had reached at 25.5 billion Dollars first time in the history.

State Minister for Information and Broadcasting said that government had launched various programs for welfare and betterment of the masses. In this connection, Rs.60 billion had been allocated to provide easy loans to the people for construction of their own houses and out of it Rs.20 billion had so far been doled out. Similarly, Rs.500,000 interest free loan was also being provided to the masses so that they could start their own business instead of running behind jobs.

This loan will be repaid within 10-20 years on easy installments, he added.

Farrukh Habib further said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had introduced 'Kisan portal' to resolve issues and miseries of this community while an additional amount of Rs.1100 billion was doled out to lessen financial constraints of this segment. He said that government had started construction of dams which will help to add 10,000 megawatt electricity in the system. He said that previous rulers without proper planning spent huge money on power houses which not only increased a burden of Rs.1500 billion on the masses but also aggravated the electricity crisis in the country.

State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had adopted austerity and saved huge public money from various heads to use it in public welfare projects.

He said that Imran Khan was a bold and brave leader who highlighted the Kashmir case at UN forum. He also made it clear before the world that Muslims could not bear blasphemy on any cost so global law should be framed to check profanity. He said that PTI government had dragged out country from multifaceted crises and put it on road to progress and prosperity. Now the people would start enjoying fruits of national development very soon, he added.

About Faisalabad, he said that repair and reconstruction work had started on its main roads while water filtration plant will be installed in each union council.

He said that Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar had announced a package of Rs.13 billion for Faisalabad and now execution of this package had been started, he added.

A large number of PTI workers, sympathizers and activists were also present in the convention in addition to Khalid Rafi Cheema and Adil Cheema who arranged the event.