Rawalpindi - Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Thursday said that India wanted to spread sectarian violence in Pakistan to achieve its nefarious designs.
Addressing ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of new emergency block of Railway Hospital at a cost of Rs 400 million, he said that India was trying to trigger Shia-Sunni conflict in Pakistan to create law and order situation.
He informed that the law enforcement agencies had arrested some terrorists, allegedly planning to target Shia-Sunni Ulema’s in twin cities to fuel the sectarian violence.
The minister said that Rawalpindi was a peaceful city and all attempts of the enemies to create unrest in Pakistan would be foiled at all costs.
Talking about Financial Action Task Force (FATF) bill, passed by joint session of the Parliament on Wednesday, Sh Rashid said, it was a great success of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government as the legislation was made in best interest of the country.
He said the opposition leaders failed to get NRO from Prime Minister Imran Khan as they were trying to exploit the situation and wanted relaxation at the cost of FATF legislation.
The minister said there was no threat to PTI government, claiming that the incumbent government would complete its constitutional term.
He said All Parties Conference (APC) by the opposition parties would be a futile exercise as they would not be able to pressurize the government.
The railway minister said, “We are working to establish a university of international standard with the help of Chinese government at Pakistan Railways land.”
Sh Rashid said that 80 percent construction work of Mother and Child Hospital had been completed. He expressed the hope that state of the art health facility would be functional by the end of this year.
Mainline-1 (ML-1) project would be proved as a game changer for the entire region, he said adding, its tender would be issued on September 20.
The Minister predicted that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would soon split into two factions as PML-Shahbaz [PML-S] would part ways with the PML-Nawaz [PML-N].
He said that two more colleges would be established in Khayaban-e-Sir Syed and Raheemabad this year.
The Railway Ministry was considering a plan to run railway schools, colleges and hospitals professionally with the help of private parties, he said and added interests of the Railway workers would be safeguarded.