He said that the government wants to increase income of the poor so that they could lead comfortable life and play a vibrant role in national progress. He said the government was fully aware of the problems of the people, and the forthcoming budget would bring great relief to the common man.
Shaukat said that the government would allocate more funds, in the next budget, for rural development schemes and health, education and poverty reduction programme. He said the government would spend billions of rupees in the next fiscal year on safe drinking water availability programme.
He added that Pakistan's economy has shown robust growth of 8.35 percent in the current fiscal year, which was a pride for every Pakistani.
He said: "Today Pakistan stands tall among the world community as it needs not to go to any international donor agency to seek loans to run its day-to-day affairs."
The Prime Minister gave credit of unprecedented economic recovery to the hardworking people of the country. He said that Pakistan was unique in meeting out challenges, no matter that these were of political nature or related to economic achievement. He said that only six years back Pakistan's economy was in shambles, but it took a U-turn to say goodbye to the IMF, and established itself in the world market by issuing international bonds.
He said Pakistan's all key sectors, such as agriculture, large-scale manufacturing and SMEs, were contributing in economic progress.
The heads of the coalition parties, including PML chief Shujaat Hussain, Zafarullah Jamali, Farooq Leghari, and Dr Farooq Sattar congratulated the Prime Minister and his economic team for putting the national economy back on track. They expressed hope that the benefit of growing economy would tickle down to the common man.
Sources said that some MNAs gave proposals for the budget. These related to village electrification and gas supply to different parts of the country.