Imran talks of reform agenda

Pakistan’s newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan said yesterday that the country is in the worst economic condition it has seen and pledged to cut government spending, end corruption and repatriate public funds.

In his first televised speech, and a day after he was sworn in, Khan promised reforms across all fields. ‘‘I want to see Pakistan a great country’’ with social services for the poor, Khan said.

Khan pointed to the growing divide between the rich and poor and said he would adopt austerity measures to relieve the strain on the economy and tackle the country’s foreign debt, over

US$95 billion. ‘‘The interest that we have to pay on our debt has reached a level that we have to take on more debt just to repay our obligations,’’ said Khan, calling on Pakistanis abroad to save their money in the country’s banks during this financial crunch.

Khan added that his government will also reform the police, health and education sectors, referring to his party’s successes in those fields in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Khan spoke only briefly on foreign policy. ‘‘We will keep good relations with all countries; we want peace as without it no progress and development is possible,’’ he said.

Earlier in the day, the legislature in Pakistan’s largest Punjab province elected a member of Khan’s party as chief minister following last month’s elections.

Usman Buzdar won a majority

186 votes out of 371 in the

‘‘We will keep good relations with all countries; we want peace as without it no progress and development is possible.’’

of Punjab provincial assembly in Lahore, defeating Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, who secured 159. Sharif is the son of the previous chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, and the nephew of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been jailed on corruption allegations. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League won the most seats in the Punjab assembly in last month’s elections, but Buzdar prevailed with the support of independents and allied parties.

–AP Europe should help rebuild President Bashar al-Assad’s Syria to allow refugees to return home and to prevent new flows of migrants, Vladimir Putin told Angela Merkel at a summit over the weekend.

President Putin arrived at the talks more than half an hour late after earlier appearing at the wedding of Karin Kneissl, Austria’s foreign minister.

With the aim of using European divisions over migration to support Russia’s policy in backing Assad during the civil war, the Russian president called for the reconstruction of Syria to allow millions of refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Europe to return home. ‘‘We need to strengthen the humanitarian effort in the Syrian conflict,’’ he said before an evening meeting with the German chancellor at her official Schloss Meseberg retreat. ‘‘By that I mean, above all, humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, and help [for] the regions where refugees living abroad can return to. This is potentially a huge burden for Europe.’’

Germany has accepted over a million asylum seekers since 2015, including many Syrian refugees, in an influx that has politically weakened Merkel and deeply divided the EU.

Merkel called for Russia to help prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib, the last major bastion of Syrian rebels, and avoided the issue of backing for the Assad dictatorship. ‘‘This does not create a peace order. Germany attaches great importance to us starting a political process,’’ she said, urging constitutional reform and elections after an end to fighting.

During talks on Ukraine, she pressed Putin to accept the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to monitor a ceasefire between Ukrainian military forces and Russianbacked separatists in the Donbass region.

In an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Heiko Maas, Germany’s foreign minister, said he was ‘‘cautiously optimistic’’ that the UN mission could save a four-year old peace deal signed in Minsk, allowing the EU to lift sanctions against Russia.

– The Times