Campaign against COAS intolerable: PM

F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said that the “disgusting” smear campaign of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against Chief of the Army Staff General Asim Munir, at the behest of Imran Niazi, deserved the strongest condemnation.
On Twitter, the prime minister said that Imran Niazi was stooping to unprecedented lows in his desperation for power and going to the extent of damaging the country and undermining its armed forces and their leadership. The campaign against the COAS was intolerable and the continuation of a conspiracy against the national institutions, according to a PM Office press release.
The prime minister urged overseas Pakistanis to raise their voice against the “foreign-funded” campaign. He said as the dirty political game was being played through the expatriates, they should not become part of the conspiracy. He said Imran Khan was violating the constitution by dragging the institutions and their leadership into his “dirty” politics.
The prime minister also instructed the interior minister to strictly deal with those running such a smear campaign against the institutions. He also warned of strict legal action against those fanning chaos and subversion in the country. A campaign against an army chief appointed purely on merit for the first time in the country’s history could only be an agenda of the anti-Pakistan elements, he added. “The whole nation stands by its institutions and is united against miscreants,” the prime minister remarked.
Govt prioritizing steps to facilitate investors, industrialists: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said the government was taking steps on priority basis to provide all possible facilities to the investors and industrialists.
He said there were immense opportunities for investment in information and technology, industry, energy, communication and infrastructure sectors of the country. The prime minister was talking to Dawlance Chairman Fatih Kemal Ebiclioglu, who along with a delegation called on him, the PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.
During the meeting, Minister for Board of Investment Chaudhry Salik Hussain, PM’s Special Assistant Jahanzaib Khan, relevant officials and Ambassador of Turkiye to Pakistan Mehmet Pacaci also attended the meeting. The prime minister observed that the destruction caused by the earthquake in Turkiye during February had no precedent in the recent past, adding that they were grieved over such scale of devastation.
He said Pakistan immediately sent rescue, relief and medical teams to Turkiye and the relief goods were still being sent to the quake-hit country. The prime minister reiterated that the people of Pakistan would fully support their Turkish brothers and sisters in the difficult time as Turkiye had always stood by them in hard times.
The delegation apprised the prime minister that huge investment was being made on the Dawlance unit already functioning in Pakistan, so that energy-efficient products could be produced with the use of the latest technology. Moreover, a strategy was being mulled to transform the Dawlance production plant in Pakistan into a regional export hub. After Karachi, Dawlance had also established a research and development center in the National University of Sciences and Technology in Islamabad that would serve as a liaison between academia and industry.
The center would also help in capacity building, besides providing technical assistance to the engineers. The delegation further apprised that Arcelik, a Turkish household industry, had been providing internships to Pakistani students in Turkiye for the last two years which was not only preparing them for the requirements of the industry besides, a number of students were employed in that company. The prime minister directed the relevant authorities to resolve all the operational issues of Dawlance and expressed good wishes for the delegation.