PM Imran launches Ehsaas Amdan Programme in Layyah

LAYYAH: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday launched the Ehsaas Amdan Programme in Layyah, promising the country that bad times were over.

Addressing the launching ceremony, PM Imran said that difficult times had gone and though Pakistan needed to struggle in future as well, the country was on the right track.

“They tell me that inflation is too high. You don’t know that if our government hadn’t come up with sound economic policies, the inflation would be double,” he said.

The prime minister credited his economic team for turning the economy around, saying that the current account deficit had been cut by 75% in the past one year.

The Amdan (income) Programme is one of several programmes launched under the PTI government’s Ehsaas initiative — a broad-based programme to lift the most vulnerable out of poverty.

The programme is aimed at creating respectable livelihood opportunities for those that are the most disadvantaged.

It involves giving away of small assets to those who live below the poverty line so that they can earn a living and lift themselves out of poverty.

Assets include livestock (goats, cows, buffaloes and poultry), agricultural inputs, Qingqi rickshaws, and inputs for small retail outlets and small enterprises.

In his address, the prime minister, speaking to an audience of the programme’s beneficiaries, referred to the difficult economic conditions that continue to persist.

He explained that the government was constrained in providing relief because it had to return interest and payments due on past loans, or risk a default.

“If the country had defaulted, the price of everything would have doubled,” he explained.

Expressing optimism, the prime minister said that the country now seemed to be on the right track and noted that the rupee was not devaluing any further.