Visible economy increase in last three months: Asad Umar

Federal Minister for Finance Asad Umar has said in last three months there was a visible increase in the country’s economy.

Talking to a private news channel, he said that when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government came in to power, the country was going through economic crisis and the government was considering all the options to uplift the economy.

The Minister said both the foreign visits of Prime Minister Imran Khan were very successful, which helped in settling the economy of the country.

Asad Umar said “the government was taking loan on minimum interest rate, rather looking for financial aid”.
He said that bailout package was unavoidable from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help country’s economic challenges.

He said the government has no plan so far to privatize Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Pakistan International Airline (PIA) and Pakistan Railways (PR).

The minister said that there was a good coordination and working relationship with all provinces while there was no difference of opinion among the federal and provincial governments.

Responding to a question regarding appointment of Zulfi Bukhari as the prime minister’s Special Assistant on overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, he said the appointment was made after a detailed legal discussions.

He said Zulfi Bukhari was not prime minister’s childhood friend who were appointed because of his friendship with the prime minister. He said Zulfi Bukhari was a young foreign businessman who was appointed to bring maximum foreign investment to Pakistan.

Whatever the decision comes from the Supreme Court in Zulfi Bukhari’s case, he said the government would obey and implement the court decision.

Replying to another question regarding the privatization, he said that all the good projects of previous government would be continued, adding that a plan was under consideration regarding privatization of LNG Power Plant project.