ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Thursday said that the Federal Cabinet has decided to constitute "Sarmaya Pakistan Company” to revive 193 state entities, running in loss and manage their affairs in an efficient manner.
Briefing the media persons after the Cabinet meeting, he said that the revolutionary step has been taken to incorporate the company to provisionally run the loss-making companies in public sector.
He said its Board of Governors, to be headed by the Prime Minister, will comprise three federal ministers, seven members from the private sector and it would present its recommendations to the Cabinet to decide future line of action.
The minister said that the Prime Minister will brief the nation about the landmark achievements of the government during the first 100-day of the government on November 29. He said that the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf government has made major strides in its first 100 days, unlike the past governments that failed to come up to the people''s expectations in this specific period of time.
The minister said that the cabinet also expressed concern over the treatment meted out to the federal ministers in the Senate and said that nobody would be allowed to humiliate them.
He said that in his speech in Senate, there was nothing unparliamentary, and he only pointed out that Rs 42 trillion were given to Baluchistan government in the last 10 years and during the past five years, opposition parties had been ruling the province, so they should be asked where they had spent the funds.
On the contrary, he said that Mushahidullah Khan used derogatory language against the Prime Minister and himself but he was not asked to apologize.
Fawad Hussain said that he had asked the Chairman to form a parliamentary committee to probe the alleged embezzlement of Rs 42 trillion development funds given to the Baluchistan government during the last 10 years and on this, he was being asked to tender apology.
The minister said that the Prime Minister had great concern over the Pakistani prisoners in foreign jails as provision of legal assistance was responsibility of the government.
He said that government was hopeful about the case of Dr Afia Siddiqui and was making all out efforts for her release.
He said the Cabinet decided that the decision of devolving the procurement process regarding e-governance should be reverted and purchases for this project would be done centrally.
The cabinet also discussed the issue of tenure of top bureaucrats and there was a proposal that initially the secretaries should be appointed for six months on probation and after satisfactory performance, they should be given two-and-a-half year tenure without any transfer.
He said that Supreme Court had given its observations in Anita Turab case and the prime minister had a clear stance that the bureaucracy should be depoliticized and their appointments should be done on performance and not on political affiliations.
After the discussion, a cabinet committee was formed, headed by Arbab Shahzad which would present its report to the Cabinet.
He said that Ilyas Khan has been given acting charge as Managing Director Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation.
The Cabinet also decided to allow import of 50,000 tonnes of urea to ensure stability of its price in the market.
The cabinet decided the release of Rs 230 million outstanding dues of media houses with the hope that they would also provide relief to the working journalists.
He said that Pakistan had a very vibrant media and most of its employees were working on low salaries but time has come for the owners to change their business model as they could not run their organizations on government advertisements only.
The cabinet also decided to maintain the support price for 40 kg wheat at Rs 1300 and deliberated the policy to dispose of one million tonnes surplus wheat.
The cabinet, he said also discussed the issue of extradition of on Afsheen Bux who brought her two daughters to Pakistan in violation Danish court orders and decided that a magistrate will hold inquiry into the matter and present his report and then final decision would be made in this case.
Later replying to the questions of media persons, he said that politicians do make and ruin the countries and previous ten year of governance in Pakistan were best example of ruining the country.
He opined that due to such politicians, the people have lost their trust in them, but the PTI was striving to restore the image of the politicians among masses.
Responding to a question about the abduction of SP Tahir Dawar, he said that out of 1600 cameras of the Safe City project installed during previous regime, 600 were out of order and the rest were unable to read the number plates of the vehicles or recognize the faces of persons inside the vehicles.
He said that the martyred SSP was a respectable son of the soil and not only the government but entire Pakistan was standing by the bereaved family.
He said it was strange that when the PTI leadership talks about the corruption, the privilege of the house members is breached but privilege of the masses is never breached by loot and plunder of national resources.
On the issue of National Assembly’s standing committees, he said that the opposition''s demand of audit of Nawaz Shairf government project by his real brother Shehbaz Sharif was ludicrous and could not be accepted.
He said PTI''s stance was based on the principles that it had the right to nominate its chairman till the audit of PML-N era is done, when the audit of PTI projects would come, opposition would be given free hand to appoint chairman of its choice.