F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on on Tuesday reiterated that the interim government would extend all possible cooperation and ensure the provision of necessary resources to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for holding free, fair and transparent elections in the country.
The prime minister expressed these views during a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja who called on him at the PM House, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.
The chief election commissioner briefed the prime minister about the ECP preparations for the upcoming general elections in the country. He also invited the caretaker prime minister to visit ECP to review these measures.
PM stresses urgent role by int’l community to stop Gaza genocide: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar stressed the need for the international community to play an urgent role in stopping Israel’s aggression against Palestinians.
He expressed these views in a meeting with the Special Representative of the Prime Minister for Religious Harmony and Pakistan diaspora in Middle East and Islamic Countries, Maulana Tahir Ashrafi here at the PM House. PM Kakar and Maulana Ashrafi strongly condemned Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza.
The meeting welcomed the upcoming meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to be held in Jeddah on the deteriorating situation of Palestine. Maulana Ashrafi paid tributes to the interim government’s steps to promote inter-faith harmony. The prime minister on the occasion lauded Maulana Tahir Ashrafi for his efforts for the welfare of Pakistanis residing in the Middle East and other Islamic countries.
PM hopeful of SIFC bringing in over $60b investment to Pakistan in five years: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar expressed the hope that the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) would help bring in over $60 billion investment to Pakistan in the next five years.
“It is indeed. It could be probably more than that,” the prime minister said in an interview with Arab News when asked whether the reports that the SIFC would bring in up to $60 billion in investments in Pakistan in the next five years were realistic. He said the SIFC would serve as a “one-window operation” to address any concerns of foreign investors.
“Two or three areas have already been addressed, like repatriation of dollars, which is the demand of any FDI [foreign direct investment] entity, [that] it’s insured, it’s legally protected,” the prime minister said. “Secondly, the bureaucratic red-tapism has also been addressed, the one-window opportunity on the platform of SIFC is primarily being designed for this purpose, that we need to cut off all these bureaucratic hurdles and rationalize the entire process of allowing and giving permission to any investment from outside within 15 days.”
He said a dispute resolution mechanism had been agreed under the SIFC platform. “It’s quite encouraging and favourable, which is acceptable to all the outside parties … The dispute resolution mechanism has been addressed.” To a question, he said the government hoped to conclude a deal by December for Saudi Arabia to buy stakes in Reko Diq, one of the world’s biggest gold and copper mining projects.
“We are quite excited at the Saudi offer, and we would be very much encouraging their participation, not just in this project but otherwise also,” Prime Minister Kakar said. “It is the negotiation part, which is happening between the three parties, and let’s see what sort of outcome comes of that.”
In August, Pakistan hosted officials from Saudi Arabia in its inaugural mining conference in Islamabad where Barrick officials were also present. Barrick and Saudi Arabia’s state-owned mining company Ma’aden jointly operate a copper project in Jeddah.
Pakistan ready to replicate its unique AMA success story with developing countries: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar , highlighting Pakistan’s achievement through the Asaan Mobile Account (AMA) Scheme to enhance women’s financial inclusion, said the country was ready to replicate its success story with the developing countries.
“Many developing countries are in touch with us directly through world organizations like the Islamic Development Bank, ADB, the AIIB, UNDP, etc. We stand ready to replicate this unique Pakistani success story with their support for the underprivileged and for the deprived women anywhere in the world,” he said addressing a virtual event on “Bridging the Financial Inclusion Gap in Pakistan”.
The event was organised by the World Economic Forum’s Edison Alliance and the Virtual Remittance Gateway. The prime minister said that his prime objective as the head of the government was to give hope to the poor through the many-to-many platform.
He thanked the World Economic Forum’s Edison Alliance and its head Claude Dyer for recognising Pakistan’s amazing success story of the Asaan Mobile Account (AMA) Scheme on the World Bank’s Financial Inclusion and Women Empowerment Project.
He said under the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) collaborated with various branchless banking providers, banks and telecom operators to introduce Third Party Provider Services in Pakistan to facilitate the unbanked and underbanked population.
“The slogan is banking the unbanked. Before the launch of the AMA Scheme, 80% of the population was unbanked, whereas after the soft launch in December 2021 the ratio has improved by 10%. Unfortunately, of the 30% having bank accounts, only 18% (less than 5% of the total banking population) are women. With the launch of the AMA accounts 38% are women,” he told the participants.
He said any Pakistani holding a valid National ID Card could open a bank account digitally anywhere without any hassle in less than two minutes in a swift, easy and affordable manner in any AMA participating bank from a smart or a feature phone using a short code of *2262#. “The account holders can then make transactions without the need for internet connectivity. Already more than 8.5 million Pakistanis without internet facilities have bank accounts and this number is growing by 4000-5000 a day,” he added.
“I believe Pakistan is leading in the opening of bank accounts in Edison Alliance’s 1 Billion Lives Challenge by 2030. The platform’s task is two-fold. The first is to open bank accounts without hassle and the second for the “many-to-many” model to help government and commercial organizations in social welfare and relief programmes, digital lending both Micro and Nano loans, as well as digital insurance to the masses.”
Highlighting other innovative services being provided by Pakistan’s banking sector, he said the home remittances being processed in a transparent and swift manner with the transaction of funds through legal financial channels was of particular importance. “The AMA Platform is conducting a pilot project with a number of banks where the recipient gets the fund directly from the donor abroad which can then be encashed directly at any one of the participating banks on the State Bank’s PTA’s innovative “agent interoperability” method,” he added.
Calling the AMA Scheme a “shining example” of public-private partnership, he congratulated VRG, a member of the Pathfinder Group, a long-term member of the World Economic Forum (WEF), for the remarkable achievement. Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar, Deputy Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Saleem Ullah Khan and Chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Maj Gen Hafeez ur Rehman Khan also addressed the event.
Dr Amjad Saqib, Head of the Benazir Income Support Programme – one of the most successful social welfare schemes in the world, also explained how BISP and AMA were going to work together to force-multiply the financial access to the deprived. Chairman of Pathfinder Group and VRG Zarrar Sehgal and Chief Executive Officer of Virtual Remittance Gateway Muhammad Salman Ali were also among the prominent speakers.
PM to attend ECO Summit: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Wednesday will embark on an official visit to Tashkent, Uzbekistan to participate in the 16th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Summit being held on November 8-9. “At the Summit, the Prime Minister will reaffirm Pakistan’s commitment to ECO Vision 2025 and to promotion of regional cooperation in the areas of trade, transport, connectivity, energy, tourism and economic growth and productivity,” Foreign Office Spokesperson said in a press statement on Tuesday.
The prime minister will present Pakistan’s vision for the future work of the organization and for promotion of regional connectivity and mutual prosperity and would also engage in bilateral discussions with the leadership of Uzbekistan and other participating leaders. As a founding member of ECO, Pakistan remained committed to the goals of connectivity and mutual prosperity of the ECO region, it was added.
