LAYYAH: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said on Monday that if his party was elected in coming elections it would introduce farmer-friendly rules for agriculture, new education policies, tax reforms and provide a conducive environment to investors.

The PTI chief was addressing a public meeting at the Sports Complex in Layyah as part of his mass mobilisation campaign.

“I have a four-point agenda and by pursuing this agenda, we will soon become a modern, developed and prosperous nation,” he said.

If the PTI was voted into power, said Mr Khan, it would introduce a farmer-friendly policy for agriculture in which farmers would get maximum fiscal benefits and sugar mill owners would not be able to withhold their payment.

“To ensure economic stability of farmers, we will provide good quality pesticides, fertilizers and pure seeds,” he said, adding, “we will introduce a uniform education system in the country and will provide free education to students”.

In his address, Mr Khan said the PTI would stop tax evasion and take to task the corrupt bureaucrats who minted money in the name of development from the public exchequer.

He maintained that investor-friendly programmes would be introduced and maximum resources would be provided to improve the socioeconomic condition of the masses.

If elected, he said, the PTI would initiate projects for foreign investments which would generate jobs for the youth.

PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi also spoke on the occasion.

A total of 800 police officials and constables, among them 50 women, were deployed at the venue as part of security arrangements for the public meeting.

Claim about loadshedding rejected

Our Staff Reporter in Islamabad adds: The PTI has rejected the claim of the government about ending loadshedding in some parts of the country, saying that more than 40 per cent of the country is still experiencing the scourge.

In a statement issued on Monday, PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said that 42pc of the feeders in the country were not free of loadshedding.

He said the federal government could not claim to have ended the loadshedding by merely making free a few urban areas out of the power crisis.

“Rural areas across the country continue to face hours-long blackouts, but the government still claims to have ended the loadshedding,” the PTI spokesman said, adding that a majority of population lived in rural areas and they were still suffering from the problem.

After having failed to fulfil its earlier promise of ridding the country of loadshedding by November 2017, the government announced on Sunday that it had managed to ensure zero loadshedding in some parts of the country.

According to federal Minister for Power Division Awais Leghari, more than 15 million consumers would not experience loadshedding in their areas as more than 5,000 feeders across the country, out of a total of 8,600, had been turned into zero-loadshedding feeders from Sunday.

The PTI spokesman said Pakistan is not confined to a few urban areas and failed policies of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had affected the industry negatively resulting in continuous decline in exports.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2017