F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Friday said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government stood by the weaker sections of the society against the powerful people.
“If our prime minister cannot stand by weaker Pakistanis then we have no right to remain in power”, he said while addressing a joint press conference along with Minister for Commerce Razaq Daud here. The minister said the powerful section of the society had to realize that the weaker section was their responsibility. He said he was surprised on the reaction of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leadership over prime minister’s remarks.
He said the prime minister spoke on the rights of Pakistanis living abroad, especially the labour class.
He said the overseas Pakistanis had shown great trust in the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan as remittances from Pakistanis abroad had touched record high and they were playing an important role in building the national economy.
He said the government was ready to talk to the opposition so it (opposition) should adopt a serious approach for electoral reforms.
He said he had already said that reelection should be done in NA-249 and the other day’s events proved that it was a case of re-polling not recounting as seals of the ballot bags were broken and form 46 were missing.
He said all this controversy was due to opposition parties refusal to adopt a serious approach for reformation of the electoral process. He said opposition leaders should realize the court cases against them were a separate issue.
He gave the good news to the media that the cabinet had given approval to the Journalist Protection Act which would prove a landmark legislation for the welfare and better working environment for working journalists. He said a new institution would be set up for redressal of journalists complaints. He said the government had released Rs400 million to media houses and the purpose of providing funds to media houses was to pay salaries to media workers on Eid.
He said a programme for support of media houses was being launched and a Media Development Authority would be constituted. Replying to questions from journalists, Fawad said the prime minister’s inspection was tasked to investigate the Saudi Arabia-based Pakistani embassy and its chairman Ahmad Yar Hiraj would submit the initial report within 15 days to the prime minister and then the next phase would be initiated on that matter.
Regarding Prime Minister Imran Khan’s promise of provision of 10 million jobs and five million houses, Fawad made it clear that these two major promises were not election promises but the PTI and its government meant it.
He said he was compiling the data on job provision, but over one million Pakistanis had got employment abroad during the last two and a half years, whereas thousands were employed in government and private departments.
The minister said the Prime Minister Housing Scheme initiative had received applications for provision of Rs52 billion loans and so far, Rs12 billion had already been released under this programme.
Fawad said this year, a large number of houses would be constructed while the construction sector had already been showing promising turnaround and rising continuously. He added that the production of cement had been doubled and the related sectors had alsoshown promising growth.
