OKARA (February 22 2004): Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said that the government is planning to provide low mark-up loans to the growers to help themincrease production of food and fibre crops in the country.

He was addressing a big public meeting at sports stadium in nearby town Haveli Lakha on Saturday.

Punjab Governor Lieutenant General Khalid Maqbool (Retd), Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Chaudhry Nauraiz Shakoor, former Punjab Chief MinisterMian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, former Federal Minister Ejazul Haq and Depalpur tehsil Nazim Khurram Jehangir Wattoo were also present on the occasion.

Jamali said that the growers with outstanding loans up to Rs500,000 would now be given the facility to pay back only principal amount in instalments over a period of one year.

The Prime Minister said that the era of politics of arrogance had come to an end and added that people of this country had witnessed the fate of those believing in such politics.

He said that those who promoted the politics of arrogance were now unable to come to this country. They were trying to keep themselves alive in the national politics only by issuing press statements, he added.

He said the government meant serving the people without looking for personal benefits and perks.

Jamali said that he believes in neat and clean politics. Talking about the unification of different factions of Pakistan Muslim League (PML), he said that it took 10 years to get the factions united.

"I was making efforts to unite the PML factions since 1993," he said.

Reiterating his support to the district government system, he said that members of the parliament, provincial assemblies and nazims were jointly running the affairs of the country.

He hoped that the successful resolution of Legal Framework Order (LFO) issue within the parliament would be followed by the efforts to bring economic prosperity to the country.

Courtesy Business Recorder