President Asif Ali Zardari while urging IMF to continue its economic support to the war ravaged and flood stricken economy has said that Government of Pakistan is pursuing economic reform agenda and will continue to do so despite difficulties and constraints.

This he said during his meeting with Mr. Masood Ahmed, Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department IMF, at Aiwan-e-Sadr today.

Mr. Masood Ahmed was accompanied by IMF officials Mr. Adnan Mazaeri and Mr. Paul Roass. Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Finance Minister, Mr. M. Salman Faruqui, Secretary General to the President, Dr. Nadeem-ul-Haq Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Mr. Shahid H. Kardar, Governor State Bank, Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar, MOS for EAD/Finance and other senior officials represented Pak side during the meeting.

The President said that the Government was making efforts to evolve a consensus on the proposed tax reforms and other issues relating to economy. However, being the democratic government it has to cater to the difficulties that the people were facing due to economic constraints. He said that the Government was taking all the political forces and other stakeholder on board on all economic measures that had to be taken under prevailing economic scenario.

He said that the democratic dispensation had taken a number of measures to streamline and stabilize the economy that include giving more autonomy to State Bank of Pakistan, regulating Government borrowings, necessary amendments in Banking Companies Ordinance 1962. He said that the Government had to take bold even though politically unpopular decisions in order to put the economy back on track.

The President said that due to war against terror and the worst-ever floods in the history, the country’s economy had to suffer major blows and it needed international assistance by way of creating economic opportunities for the people.

He said that the Government was cognizant of the need of reforms in the various areas including Public Sector Enterprises and power sector and was taking appropriate steps in this regard. He said that the Government was moving aggressively to cut costs on the expenditure side and curtailing its non-salary current expenditures. He said that on the PSDP the Government had also taken bold steps to rationalize its size and the projects portfolio. The Government had also undertaken rigorous review of all expenditures to identify further reductions in expenses. The President said that with a view to cutting down on the expenditure the Sindh Government had slashed the cabinet size and dispensed with the services of over a dozen advisors today. He said that the federal government had also decided to similarly enforce austerity measures. The reform agenda, the President hoped, though initially creating difficulties and hardship for the ordinary citizens would help to provide much needed support to our economy.

The President also noted that the Government was pursuing a policy of elimination of general subsidies and replaced the same with targeted subsidies for the poor and vulnerable communities alone.

The President said that the Government was making all efforts to ensure transparent economy in order to reduce corruption and to address the issue of tax evasion. The President also highlighted various tax reforms measure taken by the Government that he remarked as were the gateway to systemic reform and transparency.

Mr. Masood Ahmed thanked the President for meeting the delegation. He emphasized the need for stabilizing economy and appreciated that the Government and its economic managers were conscious of this and had already taken some measures for stabilizing economy.