Govt to offer shares worth Rs. 20 bn to overseas Pakistanis

ISLAMABAD: Advisor to Prime Minster on Finance, Shaukat Tareen said on Tuesday that poverty rate in Pakistan has climbed to 28 percent.Addressing a seminar here, Tareen said government’s top priority, at the moment, is to bring rate of inflation down to 9 percent. The seminar was held in collaboration with International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).He said the government would sell shares worth Rs. 20 billion to overseas Pakistanis. Tareen said talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the Market Stabilisation Fund (MSF) have yielded positive results, details of which would be released soon.PM's advisor added that unit of new fund would be offered to overseas Pakistanis, he ruled out the news that foreign investors pulled out their capital from stock market.Shaukat Tareen said previous governments ignored important sectors of agriculture, production, human resource development, education and health which are key to progress. Speaking on the occasion, State Bank Governor, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar said that growing rate of unemployment and poverty posed greater challenge to the country which need to be addressed.