All institutions working closely with govt: Fawad

PESHAWAR: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Hussain Chaudhry on Wednesday said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had given political stability to the country for the first time and all the institutions were working closely to achieve economic prosperity and progress.

He was speaking at a condolence reference in memory of late senior journalists Rahimullah Yusufzai (editor of Daily The News) and Dr Hafiz Sanaullah (founding chairman of the Journalism Department of the University of Peshawar) at the Peshawar Press Club.

The minister said that the government was making sincere efforts to make Pakistan a true Islamic social welfare state on the pattern of Riyasat-e-Madina for the socio-economic emancipation of downtrodden and underprivileged.

He said that the revolutionary Sehat Plus Card Programme was launched in KP, Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Balochistan that enabled the poor patients to receive free treatment up to Rs1 million at the top hospitals.

The PM’s Ration Subsidy Programme was launched under which 30 per cent subsidy on essential commodities were being provided to poor segments of the society, he added.

As a result of prudent agriculture policies of the government, he said, bumper crops of wheat, rice, sugarcane, maize were achieved besides substantial increase in cotton production this year.

Besides prioritizing the cultivation of olive to save foreign exchange being spent on import of edible oils, he said Rs1100 billion in agriculture and Rs1000 billion in construction industries have been invested that brought a boom to these sectors.

The minister said Rs 6 trillion loans had been borrowed during 1947-2006 that was mostly spent on construction of Islamabad, purchase of Gwadar, raising and equipping the armed forces and roads infrastructure, etc.

Unfortunately, he said, the country was pushed to huge debt to the tune of Rs23 trillion during the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) tenures (2008-2018), which he termed a decade of darkness. He said 18 billion dollars would be required in the next two years for repayment of these heavy loans that were obtained by Zardari-Nawaz governments.

Fawad Chaudhry believed that the political era of the Sharif family was heading towards a dead-end while PPP was facing a leadership crisis and was without any option except for Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

He added that these political parties would be unable to match the popularity of PTI in the 2023 general election.

The minister said the PTI pro-people policies were moving in the right direction and the party would get the overwhelming majority in the next general election on the basis of its outstanding performance and record development works.

Fawad Chaudhry said that the government’s anti-corona policies had been globally appreciated by the renowned financial organizations like Bloomberg, Economist and other international forums for protecting the national economy and saving people from starvation during the pandemic.

The minister said that every party takes decisions in its political interest, saying the political status of those who leave Prime Minister Imran Khan would be doomed and their stature would become zero in the eyes of the public. “The people would join the PTI in droves in the upcoming days and hardly a single person would leave the party which had ended dynastic politics of PPP and PMLN in Pakistan,” he added.

He maintained that the show of opposition to bring no-confidence motion against the government had flopped completely. The minister said looters of public money would not be allowed to escape the country.

While praising the people of KP for reposing repeated confidence in Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said that the political journey of change in favour of the PTI was started from KP in 2013 and the party was again given a two-thirds majority in 2018 general election that was unprecedented.

The minister said the people of KP had also played a significant role to complete Quaid-e-Azam’s mission of achieving Pakistan.

He said most political parties lacked a research mechanism to analyze issues like the IMF programme and members of these parties were often seen spreading wrong information among the masses due to lack of knowledge.

Fawad Chaudhry said that the PMLN government had ill-planned policies which negatively impacted industrialization, increased unemployment, price hike and resulted in the devaluation of the rupee against the US dollar.

He said about 80,000 Pakistani had lost their lives in the war against terrorism and our armed forces were fully capable to foil nefarious designs of the enemy. The minister announced to give interest-free loans to unemployed journalists and members of Peshawar Press Club.

The minister said there was press freedom in Pakistan and journalists were free to discharge professional obligations.

About the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) action of disqualifying PTI Senator Faisal Vawda as a lawmaker over concealment of his dual nationality at the time of contesting the National Assembly election on a Karachi seat in the 2018 general elections, he said all legal options were available with Vawda to get justice from relevant forums.