ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has decided that it will not prevent rallies organised by the opposition as Prime Minister Imran Khan took notice of road blocks placed to stopprotesters a day earlier.Briefing reporters about the federal cabinet’s decisions on Friday, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Awan criticised the “Black Day” protests, organised by the opposition a day earlier, and claimed people “disassociated themselves” from the protests, “because it did not have anything to do with their problems”.“Only hundreds” of people came out on the call of the opposition in Lahore, which showed that their show was a “flop and people have rejected their criticism against the Prime Minister”. Awan added groups of people gathered in different cities and tried to cause “chaos in the guise of protest”, adding the hue and cry of the opposition was “baseless and unfounded”.Separately, Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted: “PM took notice of road blocks that were put up for opposition jalsas. He has directed the authorities that opposition should be free to hold peaceful rallies and protests as it will only expose the opposition as they hold no street power and people of Pakistan are sick of them.”On the economy, Awan said Pakistan needed stability and a suitable environment so the nation, drowned in debt, could get foreign investment. “We want to end poverty and unemployment from the country,” she added.She said Prime Minister Khan was trying his best to restore the “positive identity” of the nation and dispel the negative propaganda against the country. On that note, she said the cabinet congratulated Khan over his successful visit to the United States.Speaking about the national carrier, she said Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Chairman briefed the cabinet about the activities of “organised criminal mafia” and their “unfortunate and shameless affairs in the national airlines for many years”.She claimed the opposition used the airlines “like a rickshaw” between 2008 and 2018. “The national carrier was turned into personal carrier which did personal duties of former rulers,” she alleged. “Twenty-one times, flights of the PIA were re-routed to Sukkur and the national exchequer was deprived of a huge amount of money,” she added.“The nation paid Rs 270 million for the expenses of former president Mamnoon Hussain,” she said. “Airplanes were used indiscriminately from 2008 to 2018 and 500 people per plane were hired by PIA instead of 200.”She said hundreds of people were given jobs in the PIA “on a political basis” and the PIA union had 33 offices in its possession. “Rs 1.06 billion were spent on fifty special flights and Rs 954 million in losses were suffered by the national airline due to this practice,” she said, adding Rs 280 million were paid while a PIA plane stood at an airport in London as a former prime minister was getting medical treatment in a hospital.She also claimed former prime ministers Yousaf Raza Gillani, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Mamnoon Hussain “misused public money”. She said the cabinet decided the money, spent by former rulers on travel, Hajj and Umra expenses in violation of rules from the year 2008 to 2018, would be recovered from them.She said: “Now due to the efforts of the government, the profits of PIA have increased by 40 per cent and through an austerity drive expenditures have been cut by 20 per cent. Now PIA has started a journey towards profitability and capacity building of its human resource is carried out.”—APP/News Desk
07-27-2019, 11:25 PM
PTI govt to allow opposition to protest freely
العرض الشجري