ISLAMABAD: Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said the coalition government will abolish projects of the PTI's government that are "unimportant" and "political in nature" and described Imran Khan's plans to turn the PM’s House into a university as one of them.
Talking to the media, he said funds saved by scrapping the projects would be diverted to schemes of national importance. He said the Imran Khan-led government's plan of setting up a varsity in the Prime Minister's House was a political project and termed it a drama. “Over Rs23 to 25 billion that were allocated to the project were spent who knows where. These kind of senseless projects will be abandoned," he added.
He said nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had sent him a feasibility report for establishing a science and technology university before his death last year. "I have asked the Higher Education Commission to start the project immediately. We will approve it immediately and start work on it in July,” he added.
Talking about the prevailing political situation, he said it was "unrealistic to expect from a government that came in the last year before general elections to pick up the basket of sins of four years of the previous government". He, however, said that the coalition government would take steps to correct the previous government’s actions. "We will definitely do that as our responsibility.
But we cannot be punished for the previous government's sins and allow them to be portrayed as victims. The burden of the previous government's sins cannot be put on us. We also cannot accept any burden that will make life harder for people who are already tired because of inflation and taxes.” He said the government was walking a tightrope but it would try to strike a balance in its talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) between the economy and the people’s interests.