| Fawad says Pakistani labourers were barred from entering Pakistani embassies | Ready to approach, hold talks with opposition parties for electoral reforms | Banks received applications for loans worth Rs52b

ISLAMABAD   -  Backing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s criticism of staff working in Pakistani missions abroad, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Friday hinted at appropriate action against responsible staffers.

Addressing a news conference along with Adviser on Commerce Razak Dawood here, Fawad said there had been incidents in which Pakistani labourers were barred from entering Pakistani embassies.

"Why action shouldn’t be taken against them," the minister asked and added, "It is for the first time that our remittances surpassed the trade revenue, and we should value overseas Pakistanis."

The information minister further said that Prime Minister Imran Khan always appreciated the embassies for playing a vital role in repatriating Pakistanis following the Covid outbreak, but the incident in question was a matter of concern.

wAbout government’s initiative regarding electoral reforms, the minister said that government was ready to approach and hold talks with opposition parties for electoral reforms.

He said the opposition parties will have to demonstrate seriousness whilst rising above political point scoring in order to remove loopholes from the electoral system.

He said, “We want such elections which are acceptable to all.” He, however, said the opposition will have to face their cases in the courts.

Regarding NA-249 Karachi by-election, the information minister said, “We were demanding re-polling from day one and now other political parties including the PML-N are also demanding the same.

Fawad said promises made by the PTI were being fulfilled. He said he was compiling a data on the jobs provided to the people during the tenure of present government.

He was confident that this year will see construction of housing units on a large scale. Already, he said, the banks had received applications for loans worth 52 billion rupees. Twelve billion rupees have been disbursed. Fawad said PTI government was standing by the weak segments of the society and focussing on their uplift. 

The information minister said the federal cabinet had approved Journalists Protection Act under which it will be responsibility of media organizations to provide safety equipment to the journalists before sending them to the conflict zone. He said a body will also be formed to address complaints of journalists.

He said payments of 400 million rupees had been released to the media organisations so that they could timely disburse salaries to the media workers. He said that a program will be started this year to support the media.  Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Friday said that Amazon's decision to include Pakistan on its sellers' list would open up a new route for the exports. 

He said Amazon will be opening seller's registration of Pakistani companies very soon. After several meetings and reaching their specifications, Amazon has opened gates for Pakistan, the adviser said.

He further said it is a big opportunity for Pakistani companies including the SMEs to use platform of Amazon to connect with the global market and export their products.

Addressing a press conference, the adviser said that the private sector logistics companies had an opportunity to scale up businesses and develop international partnerships for effective delivery. He said Pakistan Post was also having automation and preparing itself for parcel deliveries  He said that a lot of encouraging messages were received after the announcement. "A very big opportunity has opened up". He also outlined challenges and issues which needed to be worked on such as logistics, quality control and assurance, training of Pakistani merchants and work on smooth payment mechanisms.