ISLAMABAD, Jul 6 (APP): Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Tuesday said police and security agencies had the biggest achievement with arrest of culprits of Johar Town blast, since busting of terror network, run by Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.
He said the Federal Cabinet lauded the prompt action by the police and other law enforcement agencies to bust big Indian terror network by arresting the culprits, involved in Johar Town, Lahore blast incident.
In the next few weeks, details about this nexus would be shared with the media, he said while briefing the media persons about the decisions taken in Federal Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The minister said that the security institutions also broke down the Indian terrorist network in Balochistan and added many involved in the subversive activities had been identified. He expressed the hope that the law and order situation in Balochistan would further improve in the near future.
He said that work had been initiated on the plan to hold talks with disgruntled nationalist leaders of Baluchistan and added there would be no parleys with those who had contacts with India and were involved in subversive activities.
He expressed the optimism that Balochistan would soon emerge as a centre of peace and said it would be a big boost for the China Pakistani Economic Corridor as well.
He said that Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz briefed the Cabinet about the progress on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), adding it would be ready by July 15.
Fawad said Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan briefed about the main features of right to vote for overseas Pakistanis’ and formal use of EVMs in next elections.
He said the Cabinet was informed that since coming to power in 2018, the present Federal Cabinet held 141 meetings in which 3,776 decisions were taken, out of which 3,444 had been implemented whereas 66 were in the process of implementation.
The ratio of implementation of the Cabinet decisions was 91 per cent, he added.
He said that the Cabinet decided that Skardu and Gilgit airports would be expanded and upgraded to make them all-weather facility for tourists.
He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would virtually address an event, related to centenary celebrations of the creation of Communist Party of China.
He said a four-member ministerial committee was constituted to ensure appropriate testing mechanism for new recruitments on vacant posts in public sector departments.
The Federal Cabinet issued directives to Chairman Capital Development Authority to give a comprehensive briefing on green areas and encroachments in the Federal Capital.
He said that the Prime Minister did not approve the construction on green areas and so far allotment of hundreds of acres had been cancelled as hese were covered with greenery.
He said that the Prime Minister took notice of the reports about use of unnecessary protocol and security by government functionaries and directed that ministers and governors should be careful in using protocol and security.
The Prime Minister indicated that he himself did not move out in the evenings as this might cause inconvenience for general public, so the government functionaries should also be careful about it, he added.
The PM also said that only federal ministers and other designated officials were entitled to use the national flag on the official vehicles and next week a detailed policy would be announced in this regard, he said.
In a major development, Fawad said that the Cabinet accorded approval to the proposal to convert the Civil Aviation Authority to regulatory body whereas a new institution was being set up to handle services at the airports.
The Information Minister said that the PM also issued directives that 3-G and 4-G Internet services should be provided to A-category districts of erstwhile FATA as the population of those areas could not be deprived of such facilities due to security issues.
He said that the Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony had proposed that Imams of mosques in the Federal Capital be given monthly stipends.
He said that Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar informed that for apt handling of coronavirus, an international magazine – The Economist – had rated Pakistan among top three countries along with New Zealand, Hong Kong. The Cabinet congratulated the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) for this landmark achievement, he added.
He said that the Cabinet gave approval to the proposal of constituting an authority to look after and dispose of federal government lands.
Chaudhry Fawad said that Pakistan would get the relief worth $ 3.7 billion in repayment of foreign loans. He said that according to the latest index issued by the Bureau of Statistics, prices of daily use items were stabilizing.
He said during the past ten years, for the first time the current account was surplus now, and when the PTI came to power it was in deficit of $ 20 billion. He said that textile sector was working to its full capacity which indicated its revival.
He said that forex reserves of the State Bank had reached $ 5.7 billion whereas $ 700 million were with Digital Pakistan. He said that Rs 300 billion was being invested in the construction of new factories and tax collection had touched Rs 4.60 trillion mark which would further increase by next year.
He said that there would be a good news regarding price reduction of small cars for the buyers.
Responding to the questions of media persons, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the agenda for holding negotiations with Baloch disgruntled elements was being devised in consultation with the relevant institutions.
He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had again invited the opposition leadership to cooperate with the government in introducing election reforms to bring about transparency in the election process and to end the rigging charges once for all. Unfortunately opposition was so far not ready to join the government in its endeavors to ensure non-controversial elections, he added.
Regarding Opposition’s apprehensions about upcoming Azad Jammu and Kashmir elections, he said it was building a narrative of rigging in AJK elections without any cogent reason. He pointed out that only eight candidates were currently contesting AJK elections on PPP ticket and almost same was the position of PML-N, which had roughly 12 to 14 candidates and both parties were destined to lose the elections.
They were building rigging narrative as a preemptive measure to avoid embarrassment of losing the elections, he remarked. He said massive rigging was carried out in recent by-elections of Karachi and astonishingly, the winning PPP candidate was still surprised on his victory.
Responding to another query, he said Khursheed Ahmed Shah Committee had doled out hundreds of jobs to party workers without devising any mechanism, which destroyed government institutions.
He said Khursheed Shah committee appointed people on daily wages, regularized their services and afterwards awarded them pension, and added ultimately, the people will have to pay their salaries. The PPP has replicated the same devastating policy in Sindh – resultantly destroying the provincial institutions also, he said.
He said : “It is very easy for me to appoint a vast majority of youth of my constituency for becoming a formidable electable but this would destroy the government
institutions.”
About possible influx of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, he said if situation in Afghanistan worsened, Pakistan will have to accommodate huge number of refugees.
Fawad said that refugee camps would be set up along with the border region but managing the divided families would be a challenge. From out of 2,700 km long border with Afghanistan, over 90 percent border had already been fenced and efforts were underway to start proper mechanism for entry and exit at border crossings, he added.
Responding to yet another question, he said a dossier on India’s terror campaign in Pakistan would be shared with the international institutions after completion.
Talking about reliance on electables by various political parties, he said a political party should stick to its ideology and strengthen it on principles to minimize the importance of individuals.
On what ideology Nawaz Sharif had joined hands with Asif Ali Zardari and same the case was with Bilawal Bhutto who joined Maulana Fazlur Rehman sans any similarities, he said.
