No gas, flour expensive, but no option other than Imran: Rashid

LAHORE: Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has admitted that the country is facing severe shortage of gas, and 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 also blamed extreme cold weather for shortage of wheat flour, as what he said “people eat more in winter months and cold weather conditions”.

The minister said inflation was a big challenge and the government needed at least three years to overcome it.

He 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. Sh Rashid 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 federal science and technology minister, Sh Rashid said: “Fawad Chaudhry is a strong man, who had courage and he made a statement [against the Punjab government].”

He said there were many rumours but nothing would happen and added that he had already predicted that Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would 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 consensus over 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.”

The minister also said Maryam Nawaz was also not going abroad. He said more serious cases were being lodged against Shahbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz.

“Shahbaz belongs to my party and therefore he should ask me before coming back,” said Sh Rashid without elaborating.

The railways minister said currently the country had a strong and vibrant electronic media in the country. He suggested the PTI government should normalise relations with the media and treat all media groups on equal footing. He said those fighting with private television channels were condemnable in his eyes. The government should bear with the media criticism with patience, he added.

About job opportunities in the railways department, he revealed that the department had planned hiring 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 had been submitted in October and it would get approval 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 unlike in the history.”

“Pakistan has played a responsible role in the American-Iranian conflict, added Sh Rashid.

After his press conference, people started criticising Prime Minister Imran Khan and the PTI government over increasing prices of flour.