ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged his government ministers, governors, chief ministers and other high-ups to avoid protocol and unnecessary security to “minimise expenditure and end the public inconvenience”.
In his tweets, he announced on Tuesday that he would not be going to any private functions with protocol and security to save taxpayers’ money and avoid public inconvenience. “I am also reviewing protocol and security for ministers, governors and PTI CMs to decide how we can minimise expenditure and end public inconvenience,” the PM said.
He said that the next week, the cabinet would decide on a comprehensive policy in this regard. “We will put an end to the colonial legacy of pomp and glory, used to overwhelm the people,” he added.
Separately, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain told the media on Tuesday the prime minister had asked the government functionaries to be careful in using protocol and security. Premier Imran said that only federal ministers were entitled to use the national flag on official vehicles and next week a detailed policy would be announced in that regard.
Briefing the media about the cabinet decisions, he said the government had begun working on a plan to initiate dialogue with aggrieved people and nationalists in Balochistan, who are angry at the political decisions and have no direct links with India.
However, the minister made it clear the criteria for those, who were directly linked with India or were involved in acts of terrorism, would be different and no talks would be held with them at all.
Prime Minister Imran Khan had presided over the cabinet meeting. The minister said, “You will see that Balochistan will soon become a hub of peace, as peace in the province is important to the government because Balochistan is central to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and prime minister's visit to Gwadar on Monday was reflective of the importance we give to CPEC”. The minister said the Punjab police and the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) had jointly exposed a big network of India in Punjab, and that it was the second biggest network in Pakistan after the one which worked under Kulbhushan Jadhav. He said that more details about the network, including accounts, the names of people involved and the banks in Delhi through which money was transferred to the network, would be shared soon.
Fawad said, “We have also broken the Indian network in Balochistan with great success and the people, who were part of the network, had been apprehended to a large extent and I am hopeful that there will be betterment in the peace situation in the country”.
Earlier in the day, the minister had noted in a tweet that the federal government had planned to execute 131 development projects worth Rs731 billion in Balochistan while the provincial government's development programme for the year was Rs180 billion. “Balochistan is close to Imran Khan's heart,” the minister said.
Fawad Chaudhry said that Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz informed the cabinet that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) would be ready by July 15, whereas Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan briefed on giving right to vote to overseas Pakistanis and use of EVMs in elections.
The forum, he explained, was told that since coming to power in 2018, the federal cabinet had held 141 meetings in which 3,776 decisions were made, out of which 3,444 were implemented whereas 66 were in the process of implementation. He said the ratio of implementation of the cabinet decisions was 91 per cent.
The minister said the cabinet decided that Skardu and Gilgit airports would be expanded and upgraded to facilitate tourists. He said a committee was constituted to ensure better testing mechanism for new recruitments on vacant posts in public sector departments.
The cabinet issued directives to chairman Capital Development Authority to give a comprehensive briefing on green areas and encroachments in the federal capital. Keeping in view prime minister’s concerns, so far allotment of hundreds of acres was cancelled as those areas were covered with greenery.
The cabinet gave approval to the proposal to convert the Civil Aviation Authority to regulatory authority whereas a new institution was being created to handle services at the airports. Likewise, the PM issued directives that 3G and 4G telecom services should be provided to A-category districts of erstwhile FATA as the population of those areas could not be deprived of such facilities on the pretext of security.
He said that the Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony had proposed that Imams of mosques in the federal capital should be given monthly stipend. The minister said that Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar informed the meeting that for best handling of coronavirus, the economist had rated Pakistan among top three countries including New Zealand, Hong Kong and Pakistan. The cabinet congratulated the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC).
The minister noted that the cabinet accorded approval to the proposal of constituting an authority to look after and dispose of federal government lands. He said that Pakistan would get relief worth $3.7 billion in repayment of foreign loans and that according to the latest index, issued by the Bureau of Statistics prices of daily-use items were stabilising and coming down as well.
