By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, unveiled its election manifesto on Saturday, promising to revive the economy, end the power crisis, ease inflation and restore peace with neighbouring countries if it wins the February 8 polls.
Sharif, who was ousted by the Supreme Court in 2017 over corruption charges, said his party had worked hard to prepare a comprehensive and realistic plan for the country’s development.
“If Allah allows us to form our government once again, we will fully implement it,” he told reporters at a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore.
The PML-N, which ruled the country from 2013 to 2018, and again in 2022 to 2023 in a coalition government, faces a tough challenge from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of former prime minister Imran Khan, especially in the political heartland of Punjab.
The PML-N’s manifesto aims to bring inflation down to a single-digit figure within one year and to reduce it drastically to 4-5 percent in five years.
The document also states that the party would take Pakistan’s annual exports to $60 billion in five years and enhance workers’ remittances to $40 billion annually.
The PML-N said it would enhance public wages to “match inflation” and achieve a 6.0 plus gross domestic product (GDP) target within three years of forming its government.
As far as its plans to provide cheap power are concerned, the manifesto said the party would reduce electricity bills by 20-30 percent, produce another 15,000 megawatts and provide subsidies to farmers and the underprivileged.
On international relations, the party vowed to “forge even closer ties” with China and deliver the next phase of the multi-billion-dollar economic corridor with Beijing.
The PML-N also said it would seek to normalise ties with India, which have been strained since New Delhi revoked the special status of the disputed Kashmir region in 2019, but only if India reverses its unilateral actions.
“Relations anchored in mutual respect, shared vision for regional stability and economic growth,” the manifesto read.
The PML-N’s manifesto includes a range of promises to address the challenges faced by the country of 230 million people.
Some of the key pledges are:
- Provide interest-free loans to small farmers and use modern technology to overcome crop damage.
- Make all government offices environment-friendly and ensure the supremacy of parliament.
- Restore the original form of Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution, which set the eligibility criteria for lawmakers and were amended by the PTI government.
- Introduce a Panchayat system for alternative dispute resolution and reform the judicial, legal and justice system.
- Limit adjudication time to one year, especially for cases affecting the life of a common citizen, and decide minor cases in two months.
- Abolish the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the anti-corruption watchdog, and strengthen existing anti-corruption institutions and agencies.
- Amend the Civil Procedure Code and the Criminal Procedure Code to standardise the procedural laws and ensure effective, fair and timely prosecution.
- Telecast court proceedings live and establish commercial courts and courts for overseas Pakistanis.
- Establish a digital system in the judiciary.
- Reduce inflation by 10 percent by fiscal year 2025 and bring it down to 4 to 6 percent in the next four years.
- Offer over 10 million jobs in five years and maintain a low current account deficit for the next five years by keeping it in the range of around 1.5 percent of GDP.
- Achieve exports of goods and services of more than $58 billion by the end of 2029.
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