Fawad defends PM Khan’s tough talk to ambassadors

Ag APP

ISLAMABAD: Information minister Fawad Chaudhry on Friday defended the Prime Minister’s frank talk with Pakistan’s ambassadors, in which he strongly urged them to shun their “colonial mindset” and told them indifference towards expatriates was “unforgivable”.

“If our Prime Minister cannot stand by the weaker Pakistanis, we have no right to remain in power,” Chaudhry said in a joint press conference along with Adviser on Commerce Razzak Dawood here. His press conference comes after media reports about some envoys chafing at the Premier’s remarks.

The minister said the powerful had to realise that the weaker segments were their responsibility. He said he was surprised on the reaction of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership over the Prime Minister’s remarks.

Chaudhry said the Prime Minister spoke about the rights of Pakistanis living abroad, especially the labour class. He added that the overseas Pakistanis had shown great trust in the leadership of Prime Minister Khan as remittances from Pakistanis abroad had seen record highs and they were playing an important role in building the national economy.

Replying to questions from journalists, Chaudhry said the Prime Minister’s inspection team was tasked to investigate the Pakistani embassy in Saudi Arabia and the committee’s chairman, Ahmad Yar Hiraj, would submit an initial report within 15 days to the Prime Minister following which the next phase would be initiated.

With regard to electoral reforms, the minister said the government was ready to talk to the opposition so it should adopt a serious approach for reforms. He said the recent NA-249 controversy was due to opposition parties’ refusal to be serious about reforming the electoral process. “Opposition leaders should realise the cases against them are a separate issue,” he added.

Regarding Prime Minister Khan’s promise to provide 10 million jobs and five million houses, Chaudhry made it clear that these “two major promises were not election promises” but the PTI and its government meant it.

He said he was compiling data on jobs, but over one million Pakistanis had got employment abroad during the last two and a half years, whereas thousands were employed in government and private departments.