LAHORE   -  Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said Thursday that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) vanished in the local government (LG) elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Talking to the media here along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill, he said that PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, instead of celebrating victory of other opposition parties in KP LG elections, should express sympathy with her party’s losing candidates and motivate them after their sheer defeat in polls. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is still the largest political party at village council level in KP, he added.

Ch Fawad Hussain said that political leaders like Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif had caused severe damage to the national economy through foreign debts, adding that the PTI government had to pay off those loans.

He said that Asif Zardari used wheelchair whenever he was supposed to appear before the court, attempting to show that he was suffering from serious diseases. But after getting a bail from the court, he started raising hollow slogans and making tall claims, the minister said.

Fawad Ch said that Pakistan People’s Party even did not have the candidates to contest elections in Punjab due to Asif Ali Zardari’s policies, which made the party unpopular in the country. He said that such political parties were alive only because of the media coverage and programmes at private TV channels. He said as these parties would eliminate the day the media would stop giving them coverage.

Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that the sole purpose of such political parties was to hatch negative propaganda over the issue of inflation, adding that those who were ruling Sindh for the last 30 years have now claimed to make a plan for Sindh. These political leaders could not even go to Larkana and Nawab Shah due to their unpopularity, what to talk of becoming a power in Islamabad and Lahore, he added. Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari would have to spend their lives now in foreign countries, he said.

The minister said that previous governments did not build any new dam after Tarbela and Mangla, but the PTI government started work on constructing new dams after which the water reservoirs were increased significantly. There were about 200,000 companies working in the country, out of which 157,000 were set up during the last 30 months, he said.

Ch Fawad Hussain said that the PTI government put focus on development of agriculture sector due to which five major crops yielded bumper production, adding that production of rice, wheat and corn crops were historic while the production of cotton crop went up by 44 per cent.

He said that Pakistan’s economic growth was moving in the right direction as the record purchase of motorcycles, agriculture pesticides and vehicles was witnessed in the country, adding that $55 billion debt, taken by the previous governments, would have to be returned during the next five years, he added.

The minister said that Pakistan, as per vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, successfully overcome Covid-19 pandemic, while Pakistan’s efforts against Covid-19 were widely appreciated at international level, he added. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan was moving towards progress and prosperity.

Speaking on the occasion, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill said that time had changed now and people understood how the PML-N and the PPP derailed the economic process and deprived the residents of Sindh province of their basic rights.

He said that questions were being raised that who spent such a huge amount in the wedding ceremony of Junaid Safdar, as his mother had claimed that she did not own any property neither in Pakistan nor in London, while his father’s monthly income was Rs 1,500. Whether it was Khokhar brothers, who bore the cost of wedding ceremony for being the contestant of mayor elections, he asked.

Adviser to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Trade and Investment in the UK and Europe Sahibzada Jahangir said that people of Pakistan could not even imagine to what extent Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari owned billions of dollars’ properties in London, adding that people should hold such leaders accountable. He said that nine million overseas Pakistanis respect and love Prime Minister Imran Khan due to his honesty and commitment to put Pakistan on the way to progress and prosperity.