pakistan 
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said Thursday that the federal government had devised an economic plan to steer the country out of financial turmoil.
To tackle the current state of affairs, a complete ban has been imposed on the import of non-essential and luxury items.
“This is an emergency situation and Pakistanis will have to make sacrifices under the economic plan. This will have a quick impact on foreign reserves. The ban will have an impact of $6 billion,” Aurangzeb said during a press conference.
She added that the government’s focus was to curb imports and, therefore, it was set to introduce an export-oriented policy to benefit the local industry and producers.
The information minister said Shehbaz Sharif was working “night and day to stabilize the economy” and had stamped the ban on the import of all items that were not of any benefit to the common people.
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She elaborated that the ban on imports covered decoration items, food items, and luxury vehicles. She noted that the country was going through a “tough economic scenario due to the previous government’s policies.”
On the other hand, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his decision to ban the import of luxury items was taken to save precious foreign exchange. “We will ensure austerity and financially stronger people must lead in this effort so that the less privileged among us do not have to bear this burden inflicted on them by the PTI government,” the PM said.
The coalition government decided to ban the import of the following items: Home appliances, Mobile-phones, fruits and dry fruits (except from Afghanistan), secret weapons and ammunition, crockery, shoes, headphones and loudspeakers, sauces, chandeliers, and lighting (except energy savers), ketchup, etc., doors and window frames, travel bags and suitcases, fish and frozen fish, sanitary ware, carpets (except from Afghanistan), tissue paper, furniture, shampoos, preserved fruits, automobile, confectionery, luxury mattresses, and sleeping bags, cornflakes, bathroom ware/ toiletries, jams and jelly, heaters/ blowers, kitchenware, aerated water, sunglasses, frozen meat, juices, pasta, etc., cigarettes, shaving goods, ice-cream luxury leather apparel, salon items like hairdryers, etc., musical instruments, and chocolates.
