KARACHI: Foreign powers want to target the nuclear capability of Pakistan and they are using Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan as a pretext for it.
Sindh Senior Minister for Information and Transport Sharjeel Inam Memon said this at a press conference on Tuesday in which he expressed the wish that 2025 brought happiness to Pakistanis all over the world, foreigners living in Pakistan, the Palestinians, and all those who were victims of conflict and oppression.
Extending New Year greetings to the entire nation, he said the citizens should strictly avoid celebratory firing, which had also been banned by the Sindh government. “I encourage everyone to support the ‘No to Aerial Firing’ campaign led by First Lady Aseefa Bhutto Zardari,” he stated.
The Sindh information minister was of the view that Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s speech at the Bhutto mausoleum addressed the most important issues of the entire country. He added that everyone in the country knew that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto made Pakistan a nuclear power and his daughter Benazir Bhutto strengthened its defence with missile technology.
He alleged that Khan’s goal was to compromise Pakistan’s integrity and defence for personal gain through creating challenges, chaos, polarisation and division in the country. He stated that the PTI founder had hired lobbyists to exert all kinds of pressure on Pakistan, putting the country’s integrity at stake so that he could gain relief.
He recalled that Khan earlier tried to get Pakistan’s loans from the International Monetary Fund cancelled. He said the leaders of the PPP never made compromise on the country’s sovereignty and security as they faced all kinds of hardships. President Asif Ali Zardari was imprisoned for 12 years, but he never allowed Pakistan to be undermined, Memon remarked, adding that after Benazir’s martyrdom, Zardari gave hope to Pakistan by raising the slogan “Pakistan Khappay”.
Khan, however, was doing everything that would harm Pakistan, the information minister said, adding that one team under Khan was negotiating with the government, while at the same time, another team was working to defame Pakistan and increase international pressure on the country.
He said the PPP did not want any political worker or leader to be sent to a military court, but if someone attacked military installations, the case would go there.
He added that when the PTI founder was the prime minister, he supported military courts, but today, he was criticising them.
Even today, the incompetent government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was responsible for the situation in Parachinar, Memon said as he asked whether the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief minister (CM) had visited Parachinar.
He said the KP CM talked about attacking Islamabad but he could not even open a road in his own province.
In response to a question, Memon expressed that every Pakistani was saddened by what had happened in Parachinar. He said those who had been protesting should select a specific place and protest vigorously, but they should not do anything that harmed any innocent person.
In response to another question, the Sindh information minister said there were differences of the PPP with the federal government, and Bilawal had given a clear stance on it. “The PPP can still challenge the federal government today, but we want our problems to be addressed. We want the country to grow stronger and the politics of hatred to end. All stakeholders must work together for the strength of this country,” he said.
Regarding criticism against the Red Line Bus Rapid Transit project, Memon said the Sindh government was working tirelessly on the project and any organisation of the world was welcome to conduct an audit of it. He maintained that the Sindh government had not been delaying the project in any way but no work was done on the project during the nine-month caretaker government.
The transfer of utilities was a significant problem in the BRT project and the Sindh government was ready to provide funds to relocate K-Electric poles, he said.
Memon said any television channel, person or political party that wanted to discuss the BRT project could come to him and talk. He asserted that if any negligence was found on part of the transport department or Trans Karachi, the government would resolve it.He stated that the transport department was also carrying out work on the Jam Sadiq Bridge in Karachi, which was scheduled to be completed in December 2025.
