PTI slams govt for ‘controversial’ deals

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sunday alleged the federal government was making controversial deals and selling off precious and rare minerals, bypassing the Parliament and the respective provinces, being the real stakeholders.

PTI Information Secretary Waqas Akram warned that such ‘reckless, lopsided and secretive’ agreements would further add to the already volatile situation in the country.

Waqas said the government had already delivered the first shipment of rare earth elements and critical minerals to US Strategic Metals (USSM).

“Even though the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan governments had yet to give their approval for the deals,” he pointed out. He demanded the government take the Parliament and the nation on board and disclose full details of all such deals, stressing that PTI would never accept agreements struck at the expense of the people and the state’s interests.

Commenting on the ongoing war of words between PPP and PMLN, Waqas said that the coalition partners, under a seemingly well-thought-out plan, had decided to fire salvos at each other merely to divert public attention from chronic national issues and to appear politically relevant, even though both parties had already lost their political capital and could no longer face the public openly.

He termed the ongoing tussle between the coalition partners mere friendly fire and a smokescreen, arguing that both parties were fearful of PTI’s rising popularity and were trying to secure some political capital in their respective provinces by shifting focus to provincial politics.