LAHORE: Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has admitted that the country is facing a severe shortage of gas, and the prices of commodities including flour are sky-rocketing.
“But there’s no option other than [Prime Minister] Imran Khan at the moment,” he told the media at Pakistan Railways headquarters on Saturday. The minister said some persons talk of holding the corrupt accountable to satisfy people, but “I believe people could have been satisfied even by providing them with cheap flour, electricity and gas.” However, Sh Rashid squarely blamed extreme cold weather for the shortage of wheat flour, saying: “people eat more in winter months and cold weather conditions.” The minister said inflation was a bigger challenge and the government needed at least three years to overcome it. Sh Rashid was in the city for the first time to address a press conference after his video calls with TikTok star Hareem Shah went viral on the social media in December.
The minister said he was ally of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and not its spokesperson. He said he was standing with Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar till Imran Khan was backing him. To a question about the tirade of federal science and technology minister against the Punjab chief minister, Sh Rashid said: “Fawad Chaudhry is a strong man, who has courage and he made a statement [against the Punjab government].”
He said rumours mills are running but nothing would happen to the government, and went on to add that as he had predicted the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to support the government over Army Act, and they did so. “Now they are supporting the government behind-the-scenes over NAB [National Accountability Bureau] issue and there will be a consensus over the appointment of the chief election commissioner [CEC] also,” the minister claimed.
To a question, the minister said he wasn’t interested in the return of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif from London. “Nawaz Sharif will not come back [but] now my friend [Shahbaz Sharif] will come back,” he said adding: “Let Shahbaz Sharif do the work he went for in London. I had already said that Nawaz Sharif would go abroad and Zardari would be set free from jail.” “Shahbaz belongs to my party and therefore he should ask me before coming back,” said Sh Rashid without elaborating. The minister also said Maryam Nawaz was also not going abroad and added more serious cases were being slapped against Shahbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz.
The railway's minister said the country has a strong and vibrant electronic media and advised the PTI government to normalise relations with the media and treat all the media groups on equal footing. He said those fighting with private television channels were condemnable. The government should bear with the media criticism with tolerance, he added.
About job opportunities in the railways department, he said that the department had planned to hire 100,000 more people as “a large number of employees are retiring in March”. About the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the minister said that PC-1 of a project was submitted in October and it would be approved till March. “$240 million will be returned in the next 10 years,” he added.
Regarding the Kashmir conflict with India, Rashid said, “I believe we have shown weakness; however, Pakistanis reacted to the cause in an unprecedented manner.” “Pakistan has also played a responsible role in the American-Iranian conflict, Sh Rashid added. After his press conference, the people criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan and the PTI government for the spike in flour prices
