Shahbaz thanked overseas Pakistanis in London

Lahore: Punjab chief minister-designate Shahbaz Sharif urged overseas Pakistanis Wednesday to shun their differences related to elections and work for the uplift of Pakistan.

“I thank overseas Pakistanis for favouring the PML-N during general elections,” Shahbaz told delegations of overseas Pakistanis who called on him in London. “A number of Pakistanis from abroad travelled to their hometown and voted for PML-N on May 11. Millions of other Pakistanis across the world also prayed for the PML-N’s success,” he said.

Shahbaz said that it was heartening to see that overseas supporters of other political parties had also declared PML-N’s victory a good omen for Pakistan. “They are also convinced that Nawaz Sharif is capable of steering the country out of prevailing crisis, including load shedding.”

The CM-designate said that overseas Pakistan contributed $13 billion to the country’s economy annually and the PML-N government would provide them an investment-friendly environment in the country. “We will shape special packages of investment for them in consultation with banks and other financial institutions.” He said that at least 50% of annual remittances would be channelised into productive investment.

Shahbaz said that PML-N would also initiate a bank loans scheme for small to medium new expatriates’ business start-up. “Protection to property of overseas Pakistanis will also be provided against Qabza Mafias,” he said.

Separately speaking to a local TV channel, Shahbaz said that apart from the people of Pakistan, international institutions had also acknowledged development schemes of the last Punjab government. The Punjab government, he added, was the only provincial government in Pakistan that had invited Transparency International to evaluate it projects. “The watchdog has declared all our mega projects corruption-free,” he said.

Shahbaz said that when the PML-N came to power in Punjab, the province was at top in terms of corruption. But, he added, the exceptional performance of the PML-N government rendered Punjab the title of most transparent and corruption-free province of Pakistan in 2010.