Imran govt facing no opposition: Sheikh Rashid

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad on Sunday dubbed the Opposition as incompetent, fatigued and useless, saying the Imran Khan government is now not facing any opposition.

Talking to the media in Islamabad, Sheikh Rashid declared he had never seen such an incompetent, useless and weak opposition in this country. “I don’t see any opposition to Imran Khan.”

The minister further said the budget would be presented on June 11 and he was expecting an increase in the wages of labourers and pensions.

The minister maintained that all members of the estranged Jahangir Khan Tareen (JKT) group of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will vote in favour of Imran Khan’s budget. Replying to a question Sheikh Rashid said his ministry had put Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif’s name on the Exit Control List and the 15-day deadline to appeal against the decision had passed. “While Nawaz Sharif managed to trick us we have stopped Shehbaz Sharif,” he remarked.

Responding to a question Sheikh Rashid said Prime Minister Imran Khan himself was handling the matter of Saudi Arabia and some other countries in the Middle East not accepting the vaccination certificate of the Chinese manufactured Sinopharm vaccine.

He said the prime minister had informed the cabinet that he was in talks with leaders of the respective countries on the matter.

Sheikh Rashid, however, maintained that Sinopharm is a very good vaccine. He further said that Pakistan fared better than other countries in the region in terms of vaccination and particularly compared the situation in Pakistan with that in India where, he said, one would come across boards saying no vaccination for seven days. There is no board in Pakistan saying no vaccination, he said. The minister also pointed out that more people were willing to get vaccinated now and previously there was propaganda against vaccination in the country.