ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said Wednesday while inaugurating rehabilitation and degradation of Jhal Jaho Bela Road that his government is saving Rs200 million in the process for which he commends the relevant minister. Only when the corrupt are in power, the nations suffer losses, he said.
People are robbed and the corrupt defraud budgets from road construction as well, the premier added. We have asked the FIA to launch an inquiry into road constructions for exorbitant amounts go into the development projects that involve construction. Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired today the ceremony to perform the groundbreaking of rehabilitation and upgradation of Jhal Jaho Bela Road in which he address the inauguration while congratulating relevant minister Murad Saeed.
The 80-kilometre road in the Awaran district of Balochistan is a project of the Balochistan government to be completed by the National Highway Authority. The two-lane road project is said to finish within three years starting now. It comes at a cost of over Rs11 billion. Upon completion, it is intended to augment the socio-economic state of the region. The communication ministry overseeing the project says industrial, trade, agriculture, tourism and cultural activities in the province will see a surge after the completion.
This will also generate three thousand job opportunities for the local people, the ministry said. Jhal Jaho Bela road is considered to be of immense importance to further the trade prospects with Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asian States. Later chairing a high-level meeting on the development of the agricultural sector Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said bringing innovation in the agricultural sector and ensuring prosperity of the farmers was among the top priorities of the government.
The prime minister said for the first time in the country, a comprehensive strategy had been formulated for the betterment of the agricultural sector. The prime minister said the Agricultural Transformation Plan was the first step towards food autonomy and mentioned that the Agri Dashboard would prove helpful in timely decision-making. The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen, National Security Adviser Moeed Yousuf, Special Assistants Dr Shahbaz Gill, Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and the concerned officials. The chief secretaries of the four provinces joined through video-link. It was highlighted that the Food Security Dashboard had been fully activated for wheat.
The dashboard contains the demand and supply indicators of wheat at tehsil, district, division, province and national level. The Dashboard will guide about the effective monitoring of prices, procurement and the timely decision-making. It will also help in taking timely action against profiteers and those involved in illegal hoarding of agricultural commodities. The Dashboard will be updated on daily statistics to prepare the real-time data on availability of wheat in the country. Prime Minister Imran Khan also chaired a meeting to review country’s exports wherein he was told that during 2020-21, the value added exports had witnessed a surge of $3.8 billion.
It was also told that owing to government’s investment friendly policies and incentives to the exporters, the non-traditional exports also increased by $2.7 billion during the previous fiscal year. The commerce ministry told the participants that traditionally, textile products were being exported from Pakistan but in order to increase the volume, steps were being taken for export of non-traditional items like minerals, food products, fruits, information technology and ceramics. The prime minister said the government was extending all possible facilities to the exporters