Alvi should act as president, not Imran’s spokesman: Rana Sana

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Khan said on Saturday that President Dr Arif Alvi should respect his constitutional stature.

In a statement, the minister said that Arif Alvi should act as the President of Pakistan, not a spokesperson for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan. He said prior to this, Imran Khan had made the president, speaker, deputy speaker and governors do unconstitutional things.

He said the president had nothing to do with the date for elections, and he was intruding into the Election Commission of Pakistan domain.

The minister said that President Alvi was an accomplice in PTI foreign funding case. Sana regretted that Imran Khan was pressurising the ECP while using the office of the president.

On the other hand, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that the president should remain within his constitutional limits.

Taking to Twitter, the minister said that the president should not trespass the Election Commission of Pakistan limits. “He [President Alvi] should not do politics. He should remember that he usurped the constitutional post as a result of a selection/occurrence in 2018.”

He also posted an excerpt of a Supreme Court verdict as a “reference and warning” in his tweet.

Earlier, addressing the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industries (HCCI) conference “Yeh Watan Tumhara Hai, Tum Ho Pasban Iske”, President Dr Arif Alvi said that democracy could be strengthened by implementing the Constitution, so elections must be held as per the constitutional requirement.

Referring to the current situation in Punjab and KP, the president said he once again wrote a letter to the chief election commissioner for holding a meeting so that the election dates could be announced in both provinces as per the constitutional requirement.

Dr Alvi said it was a constitutional requirement to hold the elections within 90 days of the dissolution of any assembly, so matters should be settled as per the Constitution. He said the implementation of the Constitution was the solution to all problems and all stakeholders must sit together to steer the country out of the crisis.

Dr Alvi said the economic condition of the country was not so good, but the solution of all these problems lies in the continuity of democracy.

“The IMF is a lending institution and before giving money, it wants to see how we will repay that amount, therefore, it enforces discipline so that other lenders and friendly countries also lend us,” the president maintained.

He said solar was the cheapest source of energy in the country.

“We can meet our energy needs by generating abundant electricity through solar technology.” He said the oil lobby kept us away from Thar coal, making us waste 10 to 15 years before benefiting from it.

While giving credit to the former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Dr Alvi said due to his efforts, Pakistan was able to launch the nuclear programme, which enabled us to generate electricity from nuclear sources and got a 40 to 50 years umbrella. The same programme prevents our enemy from attacking us, he added.

Referring to the food abundance, the president said we need to work in that regard through the Agriculture University, Tandojam, and other research institutes.

He said the Netherlands is a country 16 times smaller than Pakistan, but it is the second largest food exporter in the world. He also urged agriculturalists to go to Faisalabad and the Arid University and conduct research on low-water consuming crops to achieve the goal of food security.

President Alvi said the government was duty bound, but in the industry sector, industrialists have to make the way themselves and all stakeholders should do their own work for achieving shared goals.

He termed IT and textile as potential sectors for enhancing exports of the country and urged the industrialists to pay more attention to both these sectors. He also suggested the business community to engage more women in trade and business activities as no sector could flourish without their full participation.

He said there was a shortage of human resources all over the world and we should fill this gap by providing training to the youth. IT was the only sector where our females can work at home and they may be able to work not only for the country but also for the industry of the whole world through the internet.

He also referred to the Prime Minister’s Youth Development programme initiated by the previous government and said it provided training to 2.4 million youths.

The president said in India, 100 percent children go to primary school, 98 percent in Bangladesh and 99 percent in Sri Lanka while we have only 68 percent children enrolled in schools, which is a matter of concern.

In response to HCCI’s charter of economy proposal, the president said it was very difficult to bring all the stakeholders together and for this purpose people should have to leave their ego behind.

The president said he tried his best to get everyone sit together but no one was ready to do so while the situation of the country was very bad and there was a need to keep all opposition aside to save the country from drowning.

Dr Alvi said he will continue his efforts to take all stakeholders to table so that the crisis could be ended with joint efforts. He said like China, we should keep our focus on health and education as both the sectors will take our country to the path of success.

Earlier, HCCI President Adeel Siddiqui presented a welcome address to the chief guest.