LAHORE, Nov 13: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in alliance with the Likeminded faction is going to introduce some rare ideas in its manifesto for the forthcoming general election if proceedings of a meeting held under the chair of Nawaz Sharif here on Tuesday is anything to go by.

“Each family will be guaranteed at least one livelihood, whether in private or public sector, while every family will also be issued one health card for treatment of its one ailing member in the best (state-run) hospitals,” a participant of the meeting told Dawn here.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, PML-N Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Sartaj Aziz, Senator Ishaq Dar, Chaudhry Jafar Iqbal and others represented the Nawaz League while Humayun Akhtar was representing the Likeminded faction.

There was a consensus among the participants that to achieve 8 to 9 per cent growth rate for defeating rising poverty graph, export-led growth is need of the hour and for the purpose a pro-export trade policy should be prepared, the sources said.

He said the meeting also discussed various methodologies for attracting private sector to infrastructure development, including roads and ports, while alternative energy resources, relying more on coal and LNG for power generation and more investment into DISCOs were also debated upon threadbare.

Services reforms, reducing non-development expenditure as well as prices of consumer items, reviving public sector companies, expanding the tax base were other issues taken up during the meeting, the source added.

He said it was also decided to form a fund for industrial upgradation and making credit available to industries at lower markup.

The meeting also agreed that after coming into power all political parties and segments of society would be consulted for formulating a joint strategy encompassing political, economic and social sectors, the source said.

According to him, agriculture sector would be debated in the next meeting of the manifesto committee to be held on Nov 17 while the present proposals would also be refined.