Imran thanks expats for record $2.27b remittances

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said there is a record increase in remittances over the last eight months.

In his tweets on Monday, the prime minister said the remittances are up 24 per cent compared to the last year.

Imran said the remittances remained above $2 billion over the eight consecutive months. He said the remittances were $2.27 billion in the month of January this year which are 19 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year.

He thanked the overseas Pakistanis for sending record remittances. “This is a record for our country and I thank our overseas Pakistanis,” he tweeted. Imran said the industrial sector also showed good result with sustained growth.

Alluding to the industrial sector, the prime minister said it is also showing sustained growth. He said large scale manufacturing saw another double digit growth of 11.4 per cent in the month of December last year. He said the cumulative growth of the sector during the first six months of current fiscal year is above 8 per cent.

“Large scale manufacturing saw another double digit growth month in December 2020 — 11.4% growth vs December 2019,” he said. The cumulative growth from July to December was recorded above eight per cent, he added.

Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PMLN) vice-president Maryam Nawaz leader said that the rulers were isolated as they had let the people at the mercy of skyrocketing price hike, unemployment and poverty. She said that Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif were fighting for the respect of vote and basic rights of the people who had been deprived of everything.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would be welcomed if the opposition alliance acted within the ambit of law during its planned long march to Islamabad next month.

He said if the PDM remains within the ambit of law, there will be no problem. “I want to inform the PDM leadership, if they come to Islamabad 10 times and remain within the limits, there will be no problem, no obstacles in their way. But if they will take law into their hand, they will see obstacles everywhere and I will be on the frontline,” he told a function.

Ahmed said the government was ready to handle the protest of the opposition and if it did not remain within the ambit of law, Islamabad police have enough stock of teargas.