PTI core committee slams lawyers’ attack on Lahore hospital

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Core Committee had strongly condemned the lawyers’ attack and rampage at Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday.

The Core Committee declared that “zero tolerance against such violence mongers” should be observed at public departments, providing facilities to the general public, the SAPM told the media here.

Dr Awan said the Core Committee focused on four key agenda items including inflation that had put serious burden on the masses and initiated a crisis in the country.

The Core Committee decided the party leadership should start coordinating with the local lawyers’ bodies, advocates associated with the PTI, lawyers associations, bar councils and also take the apex judiciary into confidence for robust policy making to discourage such people in the lawyers’ community, she added.

“A clear and transparent policy would be notified in this regard whereas the lawyers fraternity should pinpoint and terminate such black sheep from the bar councils,” she said.

She added the entire lawyers’ community should not be blamed for such heinous violation of law as the miscreants were merely a handful who would be identified from the camera footages and punished in accordance with law.

The SAPM informed inflation remained the hot topic in the Core Committee meeting where a detailed discussion was made where the members presented various proposals to control price hike in the markets.

“The recommendations of the committee meeting would be sent to Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan where we have our coalition government for its implementation and relieve the masses from increasing price of goods at the grass-roots level,” she added.

Dr Firdous further said the Prime Minister was briefed on positive economic indicators, relief measures taken to facilitate the general public and the overall political situation prevailing in the country.

The Prime Minister, she added, directed the committee members to complete the party’s restructuring at the earliest, and also create mass awareness on the importance of local bodies system and the efforts made by the government to control inflation. He also reviewed the steps taken by the provincial governments to curb inflation, she added.

She said Khan emphasised the need to strengthen the parliamentary committee constituted for the appointment of chief election commissioner and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Expressing the hope that consensus would be developed between the opposition and the government, the Core Committee members observed that in case of disagreement, the latter should set its own priorities over the matter. Dr Firdous said the social media cell in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was going to be upgraded as a digitalised wing.

The SAPM said: “It is strange that all the political leaders seeking bail from the higher courts on medical grounds are going to their homes instead of hospitals where the “critical patients” like them can be cured.

She said a well-coordinated system was being devised to ensure smooth dispensation of facilities to the people at different public institutions and to trickle the impact of reforms undertaken by the PTI government down to the masses while removing all the hindrances in this regard.

Dr Firdous said the Core Committee had a serious debate on the governance issues, particularly in the administrative and financial departments, including revenue and police, which had direct interaction with the masses.

She said there was consensus that no leniency should be shown in the accountability process as the Prime Minister also wanted to ensure an across the board accountability of the corrupt.