LAHORE, Nov 18: Confident that the forthcoming general election will bring the party into power, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is devising its policies in a way that the masses feel an immediate change on political, economic and social fronts.

“The party is formulating plans, some of which will be accomplished within 10 days, others in 100 days and the remaining in a year after assuming power to boost morale of the masses in general and investors in particular and to build their trust in the country’s future,” a senior PML-N leader told Dawn on Sunday.

However, the PML-N man would not share what particularly could be done within 10 days of assuming power.

Another party elder, who had also attended the manifesto committee meeting on Saturday, however, hinted that tackling the circular debt of independent power producers (IPPs), presently amounting to around Rs400 billion, was one of the measures that could be taken within the shortest possible time.

Insisting 10 days were enough for changing the situation if there is a will to do so, he said even a statement by a figure like the prime minister or foreign minister could do it on foreign front and an SRO by the Federal Board of Revenue could significantly affect the economic policy.

Another step that could be announced immediately was setting up a national commission on new provinces, the official said.

He said these policies would be included in the manifesto to woo voters.

He claimed the entire manifesto would be ‘doable’ as party chief Nawaz Sharif had directed the meeting that nothing should be part of the document that’s only a slogan and could not be implemented.

Yet another meeting of the committee would be held on Dec 1 to take up more issues and policies being recommended by various bodies already formed by the party on different sectors.

The PML-N official said the Dec 1 meeting would be the final one and that the document would be translated into all regional languages before making it public by the year-end.

Coming up with a legal solution to rising militancy and terrorism in the country, coupled with a specialised force to handle the situation created by terrorist strikes was also being actively considered, he added. Another feature of the manifesto is that each family in the country will be guaranteed at least one job to make a living whether in private or public sector.

Similarly, every family will be issued a health card to facilitate treatment of its one ailing member in one of the best state-run hospitals. Various methodologies for attracting private sector to infrastructure development, including roads and ports, were being devised by the party. There will be more reliance on alternative energy resources like coal and LNG for power generation and more investment in DISCOs.

Services reforms, reducing non-development expenditure as well as prices of consumer items, reviving public sector companies and expanding the tax base are some other issues being taken up by the party.

He said it was also decided that a fund would be created for industrial upgrade and credit would be made available to the industry at lower markup.