LAHORE: Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry has said the army and the judiciary are supporting the government and it will be a changed Pakistan if the present set-up is given an opportunity to work. “We can only proceed if the institutions and the government remained on the same page,” he said.
In an interaction with senior columnists, intellectuals and journalists at a local hotel on Sunday, the federal minister said institutions like the army and judiciary were supporting the PTI government whereas Prime Minister Imran Khan had also complete trust in his team, which included persons like Asad Umar and Abdul Razzaq Daud who were experts in their fields.
The event was organized by former Secretary Information Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy Munir Ahmed Khan. Speaking on the occasion, Fawad said the rise of Imran Khan was in fact the revolution of the middle class whose vote brought the PTI into power. “The people of lower and upper middle class have attached high hopes to us. This was the reason why the level of praise and criticism on us is high.”
The minister stated when Pervez Musharraf quit power in 2008, the volume of foreign loans on Pakistan was $6 trillion whereas when the PPP government completed its term, it went up to 13 trillion. Under the Nawaz and PML-N rule, this volume reached $28 trillion. For the PTI, it was an easy thing to seek further loans and initiate projects like Metro Bus, Orange Train but this would not change the situation of the country. Rather, he said, seeking loans would further plunge the future generations into crisis, but the PTI believed in strengthening the nation.
Fawad said within one month, the PTI government had taken all possible measures in the sectors of health and education to fulfill the expectations of people. Citing a past example, he said for the SAARC conference, vehicles of Rs 1 billion were purchased by the-then government but that conference couldn’t take place. Within one and a half years, Rs350 million were spent on the maintenance of those vehicles which were causing an additional burden on the national exchequer.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan, rather than adopting a lavish style of living and keeping his residence at an 1,100-Kanal palatial PM House, preferred to live in a three-bedroom house at the Staff Colony just to set an example for the nation to adopt austerity measures. He said the annual expenditure of the PM House that was around Rs 1 billion had been reduced. The auction of cars used by the Prime Minister's Secretariat or the sale of buffaloes whose milk was used by the former prime ministerdidn’t mean that it would change the things overnight but it was just a symbolic act to convey the message of adopting austerity. Besides, he said reforms were also under way in the intuitions like Pakistan Television and Radio Pakistan on which billions of rupees were spent but their income was far lower than expected.
He said the PTI government was focusing on attracting foreign investment to Pakistan and for that purpose, it had held negotiations with countries like Saudi Arabia and the US. He said Pakistan wanted Saudi Arabia to benefit from the CPEC and in return invest in Pakistan. He pointed out that a Saudi delegation had reached Pakistan.
The event was also attended by lawyer Khalid Ranjha, former Senior Minister Punjab Malik Mushtaq Awan and other members from the legal fraternity. Besides, Tahir Khalique and Zakrya Butt who handled the PPP media wing of Lahore at a time while the party was in power and later quit the party when its government ended were also seen at the event. Zakrya Butt had also joined the PML-N later.
