Pak PM woos bureaucracy

Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday addressed civil servants in Islamabad, asking them to support the government through a "down cycle" over the next two years and to support its "out-of-the-box" policy reforms.

The PM, in his address, highlighted various challenges that the nation was facing.

"We don't have money to run our country; the majority of the population is young and looking for jobs; and the loans we took, instead of creating wealth so that we could repay them, have created projects that are running losses."

He also discussed statistics on out-of-school children, malnourished children, high mortality of women in labour and infant deaths.

"I'm surprise that there hasn't been outrage over this before."

"We need to get out of this debt trap and we need to change ourselves and our nation," he told the civil servants.

"If you look at history, nations make it through challenges when the people and the government become one. The army is also more effective when the nation is behind it," he said.

He added that the government must assume responsibility for people and people themselves must own the government as their own.

"Nothing is impossible; but for that, people need to change," he said.

"Maybe God has created this crisis because he wants us to change. We will change when we start thinking, before spending a single rupee, of the children who are out of school," the prime minister said.

"Look at Singapore: they have exports of $303 billion but we have exports of $20bn."

"I give you my assurance that if you have committed any mistakes, I will stand with you and ensure that there is no undue pressure on you," he said.

PM also complained about the "degeneration" of the civil services over time due to political interference.