LAHORE    -  Reacting to the Federal Information Minister’s claim about PML-N leaders alleged meetings with the establishment, senior PML-N leader Rana Sana Ullah said that no PML-N leader was in contact with the establishment. “The party leaders are under instructions from party Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif not to meet any person in the establishment”, he told a news channel, adding that accidental informal meetings [with establishment people] at social gatherings were an exception. He also denied reports that Mian Nawaz Sharif had any meeting with someone [from the establishment] at London.  

Sana Ullah said the PTI ministers were making such baseless claims just to keep their party intact as sitting MNAs and MPAs were reluctant to contest the next elections on their party’s ticket. He also made it clear that the PML-N will make no compromise on its stance of “give respect to vote”.    

Earlier on Sunday, Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry without divulging the names made a big claim about four top leaders of the PML-N who according to him were in contact with the establishment to secure a top position in the future political set up. 

“An interesting race is going on in the PML-N. When four big leaders of the PML-N met “someone” [in the Establishment], they said the same thing. Nawaz Sharif had done no good to the country. Why don’t you consider us”, he revealed while addressing a health card distribution ceremony at Lahore Press club here.

Asked to name the four PML-N leaders who had contacted the establishment, Fawad smiled and parried the question saying, “You will come to know… they all sit in the front row”. 

Also, the information minister held former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directly responsible for the current inflation in the country but lauded the past PPP government for not leaving any revolving loan on gas.   

He said it is owing to the bad governance and plunder of the past rulers that the country was facing inflation today. “How can we ignore them?”, he asked, and added:  “Those who fled after looting and plundering the national exchequer are now giving lectures on economy today”. 

He said that the PPP had taken the right decision by stopping new gas schemes and at the end of its tenure in 2013, there was no revolving loan on gas. “On the other hand, when Shahid Khaqan Abbasi left in 2018, he left a circular debt of Rs 197 billion on gas as the schemes he started require Rs 90 billion annually for completion”, he added.

Giving details of loans sought by the country in the past 74 years, he said Pakistan took only Rs 6 trillion loan from 1947 to 2008 and strengthened armed forces, purchased Gwadar, built the capital city of Islamabad and the country became a nuclear power. He said that loan worth Rs 23 trillion was taken from 2008 to 2018 when the PPP and PML-N were in power.

The minister said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has to repay $ 55 billion loan in its five years tenure due to bad economic policies of the past regimes.

“So far, the PTI government has repaid a $32 billion loan during the past three years”, he added.  

Fawad said that some people had the perception that Imran Khan has lost popularity due to inflation but they were wrong as he has vote banks everywhere from Karachi to Khyber, Lahore to Peshawar, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. He said that elections would be held on 1100 national and provincial assemblies constituencies and there was no other party besides PTI that could field its candidates on so many seats.

“PML-N is the party of Punjab, PPP is of Sindh and JUI is of some areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Chaudhry Fawad maintained. He said that when the elections time would come, the PTI leadership would show how elections were contested. The minister said that Imran Khan would form the government for the next five years. 

He said that the media gave unnecessary hype to Pervez Khattak and Hamad Azhar’s talk during the Parliamentary party meeting. 

 

He said the government has borne the health expenses of all journalists, providing state-of-the-art healthcare facilities to journalists. He said that the journalists and their families will be able to avail treatment facilities up to Rs. 1 million per annum from any public or private hospital under the scheme which was launched by the Prime Minister. 

He opined that the private sector involved in the health and education sectors was imperative to resolve the problems. The health card programme, he said will provide an opportunity for the private sector to invest in the health sector as the people wanted better treatment and health cards will benefit the middle and white collared class.

He lamented that instead of starting such welfare schemes in Sindh, the provincial government was spending money on construction of private buildings.

Fawad Hussain said that a doctor had been appointed in Karachi on a salary of Rs 7. 6 million which was regrettable as all hospitals and the health system of Sindh had been ruined. He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had decided to provide equal health facilities to all segments of the society. “We are providing an equal treatment facility without differentiating between rich and poor,” said the minister. 

He said after Lahore, journalists from Islamabad and journalists affiliated with all press clubs would be provided health card facilities. The minister urged the Sindh government to join the health card programme. Journalists have also been included in the Prime Minister’s Low Cost Housing Scheme, Chaudhry Fawad said, adding that all journalists could fulfill their dream of home by getting loans under this scheme.

He said that a loan would be given for five marla houses out of which Rs 300,000 would be the subsidy by the government. The minister said that to remain relevant print media will have to move towards digitization as in the future, digital media will replace formal media. He revealed that during the last three years, advertisements worth Rs 12 billion had shifted from formal media to digital media.

The minister said that 5G technology would bring a new revolution and the current media model should be ready for this change. He promised that like Karachi Press Club, Lahore Press Club will also be turned into a digital media lab as the government wanted to provide learning opportunities to journalists.

He said 100 big companies made a profit of Rs 929 billion on the stock exchange, whereas media houses made 35 to 40 percent profit. He said that due to profit earning, the media owners and companies should increase the salaries of their workers. “Today our industries are fully functional, the farmers are prosperous as Rs 1100 billion has been transferred to the agriculture sector and the economy is growing at a rate of 5 percent,” said Chaudhry Fawad Hussain.

He acknowledged that there were problems for the salaried class and the private sector should play its role to resolve these problems. “Prosperity of working journalists is necessary, we have to work for it,” he said.

To a question, he said that the Chairman of ITNE would be appointed within a month which would give electronic media workers the right to go to court if their contract was not fulfilled.

He said that PML-N and PPP obstruct legislation for protection of journalists.

To a question, he said that advertisements of any media outlet could not be stopped.

He asked the media people to talk to PPP and PML-N for enactment of law and make sure to adopt the law when it comes. The government would provide Rs .5 million loan to a journalist for digital journalism on the guarantee of the Press Club.

He said so far 5,669 people in Lahore division have benefited from the health card facility. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said has expanded its health programme, including kidney and liver transplants, and it would be further expanded.

He said that southern Balochistan has been given a package of Rs 700 billion. New mechanism has been created for Gwadar city and major problems of Gwadar will be solved in the next six months, the minister added.